Ambassador Hotel Is Spared as Suit Goes On

Under an agreement announced Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District will do no demolition work on the Ambassador Hotel until the district resolves a lawsuit with the Los Angeles Conservancy over the hotel’s fate.

The school board voted in October to demolish most of the historic hotel and build a $318-million school for 4,200 students. But the conservancy and a coalition of local organizations filed suit, contending that the district had failed to comply with requirements of state environmental quality law.

As part of that suit, the conservancy had asked for an injunction to prevent the district from doing anything to the 24-acre property, where movie stars, politicians and royalty once mingled and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

According to the stipulation, signed Thursday, the school district may remove some furniture from the hotel, demolish a honeymoon cottage on the site and begin removing the main pool and cabana. But the district agreed not to proceed with demolition work on the hotel and its bungalows, abatement of asbestos or removal of historical materials.

It is believed to be the first time that the conservancy and the district have agreed on anything regarding the fate of the hotel, which the conservancy wants to save.

“We are very heartened by that,” said conservancy Executive Director Linda Dishman. “We hope that is the beginning of working together for a win-win solution.”

Victor Viramontes, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents two students who have intervened in the lawsuit, said that all of the parties stipulated to the agreement and “we are all happy with it. They can start treating the soil, remove the pool, the cottage, and hopefully stay on track for opening schools on time.”

“But,” he said, “this does undoubtedly make that more difficult.”

MALDEF has been one of the organizations long advocating the expedient building of a school.

District officials had said that they hope to open the elementary portion in 2008 and the middle and high school portions a year later.

Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to Supt. Roy Romer, said that, while the lawsuit could delay the school’s opening, this agreement does not. “This was just formalizing what we had already agreed to, which was that, while the case is pending, we don’t want to do anything irrevocable to the property,” he said.

A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for June 7.