Panel Upholds Plans for Hotel in Solana Beach

San Diego County planning commissioners unanimously rejected Solana Beach citizens’ attempts to scale down the size of a proposed 171-room hotel on a bluff overlooking the San Elijo Lagoon and the ocean during a stormy hearing Friday.

By a 5-0 vote, the commission overruled the citizens’ appeal of approval of hotel site plans by Planning Director Walter Ladwig. Joseph Olson, one of the spokesmen for the Solana Beach contingent, said the group hopes that the state Coastal Commission will modify or reject the project.

Residents said that the 12-building resort hotel complex planned by Solana Beach InnSuites violates the county’s flood plain ordinances, threatens to cause traffic problems, and blocks ocean and lagoon views from a portion of the coastal highway, which is known as Old Highway 101 and is designated as a scenic highway.

Hotel developers defended their plans, stressing that they had revised the project 12 times in the past 10 months to counter objections of local residents.

One planning commissioner said that testimony by opponents Friday indicated that the plan that would satisfy residents was “no hotel project at all.”

The planning commission rejection of the appeal is the final action by county officials, but state coastal commissioners must approve the project before it can be built.

Several opponents expressed concern that the hotel plan, which includes suites equipped with kitchen appliances, will be converted into time-share units or condominiums rather than remaining as a tourist resort yielding hotel-motel taxes to the community.

Others criticized county officials for allowing the project to be “grandfathered in” under county regulations allowing three-story building heights. The regulations have been tightened to prevent designation of a partially submerged ground floor as a “basement.”

The InnSuite developers plan to develop a bluff overlooking San Elijo Lagoon with 171 hotel suites, a 266-seat restaurant, shops and three levels of underground parking. A pedestrian-activated traffic light on the highway at the hotel site is planned so that guests can reach the beach safely.