Meeting Time: November 19, 2019 at 7:00pm PST
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Agenda Item

11. REPORT 19-0780 CUP 19-9 & PARK 19-6- Conditional Use Permit and Parking Plan amendment request to provide on-site sale, service and consumption of beer and wine indoors Sunday through Thursday 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM and Friday and Saturday 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM and outdoors Sunday through Thursday 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM and Friday and Saturday 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM at an existing hotel (Hotel Hermosa) located at 2515 Pacific Coast Highway, and determination that the project is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

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    Vanessa D over 4 years ago

    Hi. I am an owner and a mother that lives next door to the Hotel Hermosa. I am not able to attend the hearing because I have to watch my children.

    I read the hotel’s CUP request and I want to make sure you know that is filled with lies. They say they have worked with the surrounding community, but they have not. And the wall they mentioned did help two owners with driveway lights, but the wall was only put up after we were able to regularly take videos and photos of all the problems we were having. The wall did not serve our benefit, but only theirs.

    So you can understand a little bit of what we deal with today. To this date, the owners of Hotel Hermosa have failed to control even the most basic issues like smoking on the patio and excessive noise. It is a regular occurrence that their guests smoke cigarettes and throw the cigarette butts over the fence to my front door. The smoke itself is so close it flows directly into my home, specifically directly into my kitchen and directly into my children's bedroom! The hotel has been unable to manage even the tiniest smoke problem area. It is common for guests to throw their cigarette butts over the fence where they land in my front door. My youngest at one time put a cigarette butt in his mouth because he thought it was gum. The issue is an almost daily occurrence.

    Even today, the noise at the hotel continues late at night and wakes up my children. My kids also hear profanity and inappropriate conversations from the guests (this is how close we are). I can't tell you how many times my children have been awoken late at night by the screaming.
    We spent years calling the police who were unable to do anything and told us they could not enforce anything on private property. I sometimes yell at the guests directly to quit and leave. I often call the hotel directly and ask for help. I doubt the hotel shares this with the police.

    The hotel has already proved they do not care about us. They installed some of the loudest possible games outside our windows and they literally lined the wall facing our home with chairs and seating.

    This is a really big deal because it happens every day and every night, and if you add alcohol it will only get worse. Recently there was some opposition to re-opening the North School campus from the neighbors. Their main concern was that they would be negatively impacted by traffic. Without meaning to belittle their concerns, such traffic nuisance is limited to daytime hours and often with only a couple of hours of high impact. Otherwise those neighbors will be able to sleep at night and they do not have to worry about evening noise, cigarette smoke, trash, foul language at all times of the night. And it was for schools to help our kids. This request is for drinking alcohol which definitely does not help our kids.

    I do not understand how the Planning Commission can already be considering approving this request when no one has come to talk to us.
    The hotel says they have, but they haven’t. I understand why they don’t want to talk to us. We chose to live in a quiet area away from the bars and we do not want our peace ruined. But shouldn’t members of the Planning Commission meet with us to better understand what we are suffering through now and what we are concerned about?

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    Robert Lindner over 4 years ago

    Good evening members. I am sorry I could not attend in person as this request is a material concern that will have an immediate negative impact on my family's well being...and will effect us every single day and, even worse, every night. The weight of such impact I hope is not being overlooked by the Commission members who are not the ones that will be impacted. Please, truly consider the weight of what you are considering...and what is gained vs lost…and who gains vs who loses.

    We are a family with two young children and we strongly oppose any consideration for the subject use permit. This permit serves NO COMMUNITY BENEFIT, while simultaneously causing a significant detriment to its neighboring homeowners.

    It is a ridiculous argument to suggest that allowing the hotel to serve alcohol would not directly increase the number of people, the amount of time people hang out at the hotel, noise, smoking, foul language, etc.

    The Planning Commission needs to recognize that this specific hotel design and layout is DIFFERENT than a normal hotel, and as such nothing about their request is “routine.” This hotel’s primary outdoor space is literally touching a residential home community with several families consisting of young children. This hotel’s outdoor activity space layout is uncommon. If this hotel was to be built today, there is no way the developer or the city would ever approve such a design. If there was an outdoor activity space it would be designed to have it face either PCH or Artesia/Gould. I am sure there is a history as to why a hotel was designed this way next to residential homes, but, whatever that story is, we are a much more experienced and thoughtful community today. As an example, the owner, Pacifica Hotels, also owns or manages the The Belamar Hotel in Manhattan Beach. Although this hotel has neighboring residences, they are 1) across the street and 2) the outdoor activity space faces PCH and the adjacent commercial building...thereby shielding the residences from the issues we are discussing today. The layout of Hotel Hermosa is DIFFERENT and the uniqueness of its issues cannot be ignored or treated as normal course of business.

    The owners bought the hotel knowing there was no alcohol being served. We purchased our homes to raise our family knowing that the hotel did not serve alcohol and, in fact, used to be a peaceful Japanese garden. It was disappointing when the new owners removed the Japanese garden, but I understand why and that was their right. I was disappointed in how they ended up designing the outdoor space to include loud games and offered seating underneath our windows...this simply showed a lack of respect, but was still their right. However, serving alcohol is not their right! It would be a “spit in the face” to give them such right when there is no public benefit and it literally will further exacerbate an already challenging issue for multiple families that abut their property. Hermosa Beach as a community will be in no way negatively impacted by rejecting this request. If approved, however, a material part of the community will absolutely be negatively affected. Maybe I am naïve, but it would seem that the efforts of our elected city officials should be to help and protect against unnecessary nuisance...not taking steps to increase it. The hotel does not “need” this; the City of Hermosa does not “need” this. So why is it so important to help a private company, operating a hotel well outside the Downtown and Pier locations, increase their profits at the cost of our daily livelihood?

    There is always some opposition to change and the Planning Commission has the daunting task of having to thoughtfully build out our community needs with the underlying consideration of the impact on the residents. This is not a case of NIMBYism. We are the residents who would truly lose safety, health and right to peaceful living. This is not a hotel like any other…this is a special situation. Please have some consideration for the many families will be directly impacted every single day and every single night. This is DIFFERENT and needs to be treated as such.