City Seeks Supplemental EIR Proposal for Newly Resuscitated Hotel Project

• Hotel Plans for Site Have Been In the Works Since 1980s

  BY BILL KOENEKER  

The deadline to submit a request for proposal for the Rancho Malibu Hotel Environmental Impact Report supplemental is Feb. 24.

The planning department staff is currently reviewing an application for the Rancho Malibu Hotel project submitted last year, which proposed construction of a 146-room luxury hotel on the vacant parcel located on the northeast corner of Malibu Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway.

At the beginning of this month, a RFP was released to seek a qualified environmental consulting firm for the preparation of an EIR supplement for the planned project.

The history of hotel plans on the 27.8 acre site is a long one.

In 1984, a large hotel previously referred to as the Adamson Hotel was proposed and received Los Angeles County approval for 300 rooms in separate hillside villas, a separate restaurant and a separate community use facility.

The California Coastal Commission approved the permit with 47 conditions, according to city officials.

In 1991, the city placed a moratorium on all new development and the project was stalled.

By 1995, the property owner submitted a Conditional Use Permit package for a somewhat smaller 250-room hotel complex. A scaled-down version with 146 rooms was approved by the city.

The project, according to city officials, was kept active until 2006 through annual time extensions issued by the city. Upon adoption of the Local Coastal Program, the applicant was required by the municipality, to apply for a coastal permit.

In 2007, the property owner submitted a coastal permit application for the construction of the 146-room hotel.

The city contracted with an environmental firm to start work on an EIR. However, the applicant submitted a letter requesting to withdraw the application and the coastal permit and associated requests was officially withdrawn on June 2009.

In June 2011, the property owner submitted a new coastal permit application to the city for the same scope of work purposed as part of the 2007 coastal permit. That application is currently under review, according to city planners.

It appears unclear what the ramifications are of a Superior Court ruling on a writ of attachement concerning the hotel. The writ states that landowner Richard Weintraub has allegedly defaulted on a $15 million loan for which the property was used as collateral.