A Los Angeles City Council committee has remained deadlocked regarding a motion to reconsider land use designation for the Bulgari Hotel project, a controversial development proposal in Benedict Canyon.
The motion requesting the director of planning to reconsider the designation will move to the full council for approval, but as a result of a 2-2 vote, with Councilwoman Heather Hutt absent, there will be no recommendation from the Planning and Land Use Committee.
“Colleagues before us today is a motion that I introduced last week to put an end to development that many in my district and I have been fighting against for years,” Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavksy said. “And, I have been fighting against it for years.”
Yaroslavsky said her district is overwhelmingly opposed to the project, as is Mayor Karen Bass and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
“And from a land use perspective, allowing an intensive commercial use in a very low density, fire-prone residential area is a terrible idea,” Yaroslavsky said. “Nowhere in Los Angeles are we allowing new commercial uses in low-density hillside communities, specifically because of the wildfire and landslide risks.”
The project, introduced in 2018, would be located 9704-9712 West Oak Road. It includes plans for a 59-room hotel and eight single-family homes on an approximately 32.67-acre property, according to the motion.
The hotel portion would include 18 buildings totaling 59 guest rooms, a stand-alone parking structure, funicular railway and a main hotel building including outdoor amenities, commercial space and subterranean parking.
The residential portion of the site would contain eight single-family homes, ranging between 12,000 and 48,000 square feet with associated garage parking.
Gary Safady, the developer proposing the project, told the Los Angeles Times that he was working to contain events on site “as much as possible, making the hotel seem…
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