CARLSBAD: Luxury hotel project gets design board's approval

Proposal now headed for City Council review

By BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:46 AM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- A proposal to build a small, luxury hotel just a few footsteps from Carlsbad's beachfront won unanimous approval this week from the city's Design Review Board.

"I was real pleased in how it went," Bob Ladwig, the developer's consultant, said Wednesday as he discussed the city board's Monday night hearing. "The commission was real supportive, the staff was real supportive."

Assistant city planner Austin Silva said commissioners and city staff liked the architectural drawings for the proposed hotel.

"They liked the design of it because it's not a typical stucco with a red-tile roof," he said. "(The architect) gave it a beach cottage theme."

Next up is a hearing before the City Council in its role as the city's Housing and Redevelopment Commission. That meeting is expected in four to six weeks.

The process could end there, but might not. The property falls within the state's coastal review zone, so the state Coastal Commission could decide to review the plans, Silva said.

Work on the $40 million construction project is expected to begin in 2009 and conclude some 18 months later, Ladwig said.

The Lumiere Hotel Group, which specializes in small "boutique" hotels, is proposing to put the wood-sided, 45-foot-tall building on a half-acre lot on the corner of Oak Avenue and Ocean Street.

The new structure would replace two short-term vacation rental buildings that have a total of 20 units. It would include 39 hotel rooms, 10 "market-rate" condominiums, two low-income units and a 2,815-square-foot, roof-top restaurant.

The site is next door to the Harbor Fish restaurant and the Offshore Surf Shop. Both of their owners spoke at Monday's hearing, and both said they don't oppose the development plans, but they're worried about the construction traffic, Silva said.

Ladwig said the developer will try to minimize the impact to surrounding property owners and added that when work concludes there will be two additional public parking spots on Oak Avenue

Prior to Monday's meeting, the city received a letter from Judith and Wesley Marx, who live on Ocean Street and couldn't attend the hearing. The couple wrote that the project should go through a full-scale environmental review because it "significantly intensifies the current use of the property by more than doubling the living units and adding a major rooftop restaurant plus two levels of underground parking."

The city is not requiring a full environmental impact report on the project. In its review of the plans, the city found that the proposal fit with Carlsbad's general plan for the downtown Village region. Among other things, the new hotel complex will serve tourists, is pedestrian-oriented and redevelops a previously built-upon site, a city staff report states.

It will be the second new hotel in the Village Redevelopment Area in the last 20 years, the report continues, arguing that it will fill a special need.

"From a redevelopment standpoint, a high-end, quality hotel is lacking from the Village, and this project helps with the revitalization efforts for the Village Redevelopment Area," it continues.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

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