NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Hotel Expansion Gets Preliminary OK

The Los Angeles Planning Commission has recommended approval of a major expansion of a hotel, co-owned by actress Beverly Garland, located off the Hollywood Freeway at Vineland Avenue.

The commission on Thursday backed a zone change and General Plan amendment for the property containing Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn from multifamily housing to community commercial.

If the zone change is approved by the City Council, the hotel will be allowed to add a seven-story building, 24,000-square feet of retail space and additional space for its restaurant and health club.

Hotel owners want to increase the inn’s size by a total 100,000 square feet. Previous owners had received a zoning variance to develop the hotel, at 4222 Vineland Ave.

Garland and her husband, another hotel co-owner, are “just delighted because they have been trying to get the hotel back on its feet after three or four years of it going downhill” due to the recession and the hotel’s low-profile location, said Pauline Amond, who represents the hotel.

The commission recommended a height variance to allow the new tower to reach 85 feet, but opposed the owners’ request to designate the property a regional commercial center. Under the commission’s recommendation, the hotel would be allowed to erect only interior signs for the new retail shops, which may include jewelry boutiques, souvenir shops, beauty parlors, barber shops and nail salons.

Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn., said he thinks the retail space should be scaled back to 18,000 square feet and a previously approved 60-foot pole sign eliminated.

“Our next step will be to review the Planning Commission’s report, compare it with our request, meet with the developer if they desire, give them the opportunity to meet some of these conditions, and we’ll consider at that point whether we appeal,” Lucente said.