Westwood Residents Clarify Position

The Oct. 5 Times report that “the hotel designation for Westwood Horizons was sought by three Westwood homeowner groups attempting to prevent construction of a hotel in the village” is wrong.

Repeatedly, representatives of Westwood Homeowners, Friends of Westwood, and Holmby-Westwood Property Owners, testified that they did not care which hotel went forward. Their objective was to have the newly adopted Westwood Village Specific Plan’s 350 guest-room cap strictly enforced, so that the community will have the protection we all agreed was necessary.

It matters not to us if (the) Nansay (Corp.), the Horizons, or some other hotelier uses this entitlement. But once it is gone, we do not want a back-door hotel conversion or “glitches” in the Village Plan. We volunteers spent four long years negotiating this plan. It is a contract between the residents, the city and the developers. It is the law and it must be upheld.

Also, a false impression was created in the article that the three community organizations lost before the Board of Zoning Appeals. Quite the opposite is true, if the (board’s) written report matches the commissioners’ statements, that is, that the first hotelier to obtain 350 guest rooms wins the entitlement forever, no ifs, ands, buts, or conditional-use “conversions.” Then the residents will have achieved their objective in enforcing the Village Plan.

SANDY BROWN

Westwood Homeowners Assn.

LAURA LAKE

Friends of Westwood Inc.

JACKIE FREEDMAN

Holmby-Westwood Prop. Owners