Vote Delayed on Plans for Treasure Island

The City Council delayed a vote this week on plans to revamp Treasure Island--the city’s biggest development project in 15 years--because one council member could not attend the meeting.

Councilman Paul Freeman was called away to Chicago on a family emergency and won’t return until the council’s June 2 meeting, when it is expected to approve the project, officials said.

The lack of action won praise from community members who attended the council meeting to protest the plans for the empty trailer park site. Its design includes a 200- to 275-room hotel, single-family homes, a bluff-top park and public access to 30 acres of shoreline so breathtaking that Hollywood filmed movies there for decades.

Most foes want to eliminate the private homes, including 18 single-family homes and at least a dozen condominiums, so the resort and its public parks and gardens would encompass the entire site. But backers of the project urged the council to move forward.

Jack Cuneo, a spokesman for the property owner, Merrill Lynch Hubbard Inc., said he fears that the delays will hurt the New York investment firm’s negotiations to sell the property.