Peninsula Hotel Plan Cut, But OK Sought for Houses

In an attempt to win political support for a resort hotel on the former Marineland site in Rancho Palos Verdes, an Arizona development company says it is willing to cut the size of the proposed hotel by more than half if it is also allowed to build single-family homes.

Several city officials hailed the new proposal, saying it is a positive step toward developing the site. However, Councilman Robert Ryan said he is adamantly opposed to combining a hotel and homes on the property.

The Monaghan Co., in a letter received by the city last Friday and made public this week, said that because of the city’s opposition, it was dropping its plan to build a 1,070-room hotel in favor of a proposal for a 495-room hotel and 80 homes.

The decision to abandon the initial proposal came after months of behind-the-scenes wrangling between city officials and the Scottsdale-based company, which purchased the oceanfront property in May, 1987, 90 days after the landmark aquatic park was closed.

City officials repeatedly told Monaghan that a 1,070-room hotel was unacceptable for the 102-acre site because of increased traffic and other environmental problems that such a high-density project could pose.

In a telephone interview, Monaghan General Manager Phillip Marsden called the new proposal a “win-win situation” for the company and Rancho Palos Verdes, where a handful of proposed coastal projects have dominated political debate in recent months.

“I think we are trying to be responsive to (the issue of) open space,” Marsden said, adding that the smaller hotel and the homes would generate significantly less traffic than the bigger hotel.

The company said it hopes to submit preliminary plans for the revised project by the end of this week and then meet with city officials in early January to discuss them.

Councilman Douglas Hinchliffe said the company’s new proposal is a step in the right direction. “I think we were kind of at loggerheads, in a sense. . . . I think everyone would like to see some resolution, and the sooner the better,” he said.

Hinchliffe and Councilwoman Jacki Bacharach said they would have to study the new plan before commenting on it in detail. However, both said a 495-room hotel may still be too large for the site.

Ryan also said the hotel may be too big, and he denounced the company’s proposal to build homes next to it as “space-cadet talk.”

“They are not going to get (my) vote to get residential,” Ryan said. “ . . (It’s) outrageous (that) they even come in here and ask for that.”

If the company obtains city approval to build homes on the property, it would still need state Coastal Commission approval to rezone the property from commercial-recreational, its present classification, to residential.

Marsden predicted that if the development has community support, there will be no major problems in obtaining the zoning change.

Under the new plan, the smaller hotel--which under city law can be no taller than four stories--would be built first, followed by the homes. An existing building would be expanded into a 10,000-square-foot building for retail and food outlets.

The Galley West restaurant, located on the Marineland property but closed years before the oceanarium was sold, also would be renovated. Enough acreage would be set aside for five holes of a proposed 18-hole municipal golf course that would also include property beyond Monaghan’s boundaries.

Monaghan’s original proposal called for another restaurant at the site and free-standing athletic and conference facilities. The last two will now probably be incorporated into the hotel, a city official said. The company also has dropped a plan to build its own nine-hole golf course.

Monaghan’s proposal for a hotel in the city is one of two that are in the early planning stages. Orange County developer Barry Hon is planning to build a 450-room luxury hotel on 310 acres immediately west of the San Pedro border.