Fess Parker Pitching Hotel Project to Voters

With his tall frame and deep voice so recognizable from his TV days playing Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, Fess Parker’s biggest asset in business has always been himself.

But that popularity will be put to the test Tuesday as voters decide whether to approve Parker’s controversial plans for a new waterfront hotel in Santa Barbara, a town as known for stopping growth as it is for its Spanish tile roofs.

Parker already owns half of the Fess Parker Doubletree Inn on the city’s waterfront. When that project was forced onto the ballot by opponents in 1985, city leaders lined up behind Parker, stressing that he had done everything right in getting his permit. The voters overwhelmingly agreed.

This time out, Parker has taken the unusual step of going directly to voters. His ballot initiative, known as Proposition S99, asks city residents to approve a permit for a 225-room hotel, skirting the municipal planning process altogether.

The mayor, the entire City Council and many of his 1985 supporters say he has gone too far.

“He’s appealing to his popularity as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett instead of the merits of this issue,” said Mayor Harriet Miller. “Mr. Parker has his own ideas about what he wants to do, and he doesn’t want to follow our city process.”

Others fear the initiative could set a bad precedent for future development. Architect Brian Cearnal said that as annoying as Santa Barbara’s strict planning regulations can be, they have kept the city from turning into “a Newport Beach or a Santa Monica.”

“We have raised planning to a high art here,” Cearnal said. “But as much as I complain daily about getting projects approved in this environment, the whole process has resulted in a look and feel we all love.”

The man at the center of this storm is exceedingly calm when discussing his reasons for bypassing city government and launching a successful petition drive to put his plans on the ballot.

Parker, 75, said he has tried for more than two decades to develop 32 waterfront acres he purchased from the Southern Pacific Railroad. With just 3.5 acres left, he wants the project completed before he dies.

The city has approved a 150-room hotel at the site, but Parker wants a 225-room luxury hotel with off-site parking across nearby railroad tracks.

Parker said he decided to go directly to the voters because his opponents probably would have pushed for a ballot measure if his $50-million project had been approved by the city.

“What’s sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose,” he said. “If I’m going to have to keep going back through this process every time I make a change, and I’m still faced with a referendum at the end of all that effort, why wait? Why don’t I just write the ordinance myself?”

Parker said he also is fed up with fighting city officials.

“This is not a matter of 75 extra rooms anymore,” he said. “This is a matter of stopping a good old Republican boy with Libertarian tendencies. When we lose private property rights and everything we do has to be approved, we’re expected to give up.

“I’ve learned a thing or two from Davy Crockett,” said Parker, who splits his time between homes in Montecito and the Santa Ynez Valley. “I don’t give up.”

Parker said he realized the planning process might outlive him when he started negotiating with city officials about moving parking away from the property. Once he decided to go to voters, he added the extra rooms.

Ralph Faust, chief counsel for the California Coastal Commission, said he has never seen a local initiative like Parker’s anywhere else.

“We do see efforts to rewrite a general plan, or do some rezoning from agricultural to residential,” Faust said. “But nothing with this level of detail. Lawyers will get rich arguing about this.”

The city’s sample ballot includes a copy of Parker’s full initiative, which runs 25 pages. It includes architectural drawings of the three-story hotel and asks that voters exempt the project from the city’s general plan and local coastal plan.

Parker’s attorney, J. Robert Andrews, noted that the measure was debated in court three times before reaching the ballot.

“If there are allegations after it wins, we will meet those challenges as we did the city’s effort to keep it off the ballot,” Andrews said.

The campaign is the most expensive city election in Santa Barbara history and has spawn an angry war of TV ads, mailers and signs posted in frontyards.

Parker has spent more than $600,000, according to election records. The “No on S” committee has raised $70,000. The “No on S” camp has been trying to steer the debate away from Parker and back to issues such as density, height and possible paving of wetland areas.

“If the question is, ‘Do you like Fess Parker?’ we’ll lose,” said David Landecker, a former councilman who is co-chairman of the opposition campaign.

“He’s got that whole ‘Aw gosh! Aw shucks!’ quality,” Landecker said. “But the real issue is that if I wanted to build a hotel, I’d have to go all the way through the process. And Fess Parker should too.”