FULLERTON : Plan Commission Member Resigns

A planning commissioner resigned last week because his development firm is bidding to renovate the historic Allen Hotel, which is to be converted into low-income housing.

Robert B. Gilbert Jr., a planning commissioner for eight years, said he wanted to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest or unfair advantage when his project came before the special Allen Hotel review board and the City Council.

“I am not doing this feeling that there was at any time, or would be in the future, any conflict of interest regarding this project,” Gilbert said in a letter to the commission. “The reason is that the citizens of Fullerton may see it as a conflict and that the other competing developers might see it as an unfair advantage.”

Gilbert said Monday that his term would have expired Dec. 31.

The city Redevelopment Agency bought the now-dilapidated hotel for $400,000 and has been looking for a developer to renovate it. Gilbert’s resignation became effective before the project reached the special review board. The board on Thursday narrowed the list of developer candidates from six to two. Gilbert’s firm is one of the two.

The hotel is at 412 N. Harbor Blvd. In the 1920s, when it was built, it was one of the few “new modern hotels” in Fullerton, Gilbert said. By the early 1980s it had fallen into disrepair, functioning as a flophouse and being home to an adult bookstore, he said.

Gilbert’s proposal calls for upgrading, expanding and converting the building into a 72-unit single-room-occupancy hotel. The cost of the entire renovation is estimated at $1.4 million, he said.

Gilbert is asking the city to provide a $100,000 rehabilitation loan and a $64,000 seismic safety loan to bring the building up to earthquake standards.

The other developer has proposed converting the building into a 10-unit apartment complex that would have a market on the ground floor.

The City Council is expected to choose a developer for the site in November.