BEVERLY HILLS : Hotel Project Poses Challenge to Zoning Code

For the third time in five years, plans have been submitted for a luxury, multistory hotel near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Linden Drive.

The latest proposal is by developer Bahador Mahboubi for an eight-story, 274-room hotel that would include a three-story wing along portions of mostly residential Linden Drive.

The project, called the Grand Plaza Hotel of Beverly Hills, would exceed the city’s 45-foot building height limit on hotels by 52 feet. The developers would have to seek a change in the city’s zoning code to allow the project to go forward, city planners said.

The plans were delivered to the city last month and are under review by officials from several city departments. Formal consideration of the plan would not begin until the review is completed, which may not be for another month at the earliest.

Several hotel proposals have been submitted over the years for the 1 1/2-acre site at 9730 Wilshire Blvd., which is owned by the Mahboubi brothers and occupied by a medical office building and parking lot.

In 1989, Trustehouse Forte Hotels International expressed interest in building a six-story, 200-room Plaza Athenee Hotel, but the company never formally applied to build on the site. A similar hotel was proposed in 1992 but the developers withdrew for unspecified reasons.

Ken Goldman, president of the Southwest Homeowners Assn., said the group is concerned about the size of the hotel and its effect on traffic and parking in the neighborhood. A Grand Plaza Hotel spokesman said the hotel would be adjacent to a private school, not homes, and the neighborhood is already the site of the Beverly Hills Inn, a four-story, 52-room hotel.

“We’re not talking about a pristine residential area, here,” said Grand Plaza Hotel public affairs consultant Rudy Cole.

Mahboubi, along with his brothers Dar, Kamyar and Behrouz, have extensive real estate holdings in Beverly Hills and own the Pacific Triangle Management Corporation.