Council Scales Back Hotel Property’s Use

Plans for an oceanfront hotel should be scaled back from 300 to 150 rooms, the City Council decided this week.

Councilman Bill Doane, who cast the lone dissenting vote Monday, predicted the move would effectively prevent development of the property in the Old Town.

“We need a hotel,” Doane said after the council meeting. “We need the revenue, but I don’t think anybody’s going to put a hotel there with the restrictions we have in place.”

Council members last month crafted a plan to reduce the number of rooms previously agreed on for the nine-acre site to 150, over the objections of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which owns the coastal site. Doane was absent from the meeting.

Monday night’s council action amends the city’s “specific plan” for the property, which is bordered by Marina Drive and 1st Street near the San Gabriel River. The amended plan also requires 70% of the property to be reserved for a “passive” community park.

The Department of Water and Power plans to hire a development consultant to determine if a 150-room hotel would be economically viable, according to Gary Langewisch, the department’s assistant manager of energy support services. The property is estimated to be worth about $4 million.

“It’s really only the number of rooms that’s the issue here,” Langewisch said, adding that he believes the council action was premature. “At this point, we’re evaluating our options.”

The land was once the site of a large power plant that was demolished in the mid-1970s. Langewisch said the company hopes to sell the property to a hotel developer but has not yet secured a buyer.