OCEANSIDE –
A proposed luxury beachfront hotel the Oceanside City Council has eagerly awaited is facing another delay.
A group called Citizens for the Preservation of Parks and Beaches had appealed to the California Coastal Commission to overturn the city's approval of the hotel proposal, and yesterday the commission set a hearing of Sept. 10 in Eureka.
The same citizens group thwarted a hotel once proposed by San Diego developer Douglas Manchester on the same site by taking its complaints to the commission.
The group rallied about 300 people to oppose the Manchester project. Opposition to the new hotel proposed by San Diego developer S.D. Malkin Properties has been minimal, however.
Malkin wants to build a 289-room hotel, a second 47-room hotel, 48 time shares, restaurants, shops and ballroom on two city-owned blocks on Pacific Street between Seagaze Drive and Pier View Way in downtown Oceanside.
The appeal, filed by the co-founders of the citizens group, former Councilwoman Shari Mackin and Carolyn Krammer, cites concern that the hotel will exacerbate parking problems in the area. Jane McVey, the city's economic and community development director, replied to the commission yesterday that parking studies already have been accepted for the project.
Malkin first bid to build the project in 2004 and has faced numerous bureaucratic delays ever since.
The hotel itself did not need Coastal Commission approval, although City Council approval could be appealed to the state agency. That's what Mackin and Krammer have done.
In the meantime, the city has amended its Local Coastal Plan, which sets guidelines for development along the coastline, to include the type of time shares the project envisions. Those amendments have undergone two Coastal Commission meetings and much back-and-forth between commission and city staff members.
The last tweaking of the wording was due to be approved by the City Council last night, but the matter was removed from the agenda, McVey said, because the city is still awaiting some proposed language from the commission's attorney.
The Coastal Commission hearing on Sept. 10 is set for 10 a.m. in the Wharfinger Building, 1 Marina Way, Eureka.
Lola Sherman: (760) 476-8241; lola.sherman@uniontrib.com
