NOLA L. SARKISIAN
Staff Reporter
For years, the Hotel Del Capri has seemed like an anachronism: a two-story motel-like property dwarfed by luxury high-rise condominiums along Westwood’s “Golden Mile.”
But if its owner has anything to say about it, that’s likely to change. Los Angeles-based JFBA LLC wants to tear down the Wilshire Boulevard property and build a 24-story, 90-unit condominium tower.
It’s easy to understand JFBA’s motivation: The winding section of Wilshire on each side of the Del Capri is flanked by roughly 30 ritzy high-rises some dating back to 1922 that can command $600,000 to $10 million per unit.
But Westwood’s fiercely protective homeowners groups do not plan to stand by while another high-rise is planted in their neighborhood. “We don’t want the great wall of Wilshire,” said Laura Lake, president of the Friends of Westwood, which is guiding the resident opposition.
At the core of the dispute is the 18-year-old Wilshire Westwood Scenic Corridor Plan, which was intended to set development standards along the area stretching from just east of Glendon Avenue to Club View Drive at the Beverly Hills border.
Under the plan, new structures can be no taller than six stories, or 75 feet, unless a conditional use permit is approved. Another clause states that shadows cast on residential structures more than 200 feet away should not remain longer than two hours between the hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
JFBA has been seeking a use permit that would allow it to exceed the six-story limit. But opposition by residents has prompted City Councilman Michael Feuer to propose that the city Planning Commission forbid developers from violating the Scenic Corridor Plan.
“We can’t play games with developers by giving them the option to appeal,” Lake said. “We want Mike Feuer to say he opposes anything over six stories and to help pass the law fast.”
Lake says that Feuer’s opposition to other high-rise developments in the area hasn’t prevented the rest of the City Council from approving them. In January 1998, the council gave the OK for a conditional use permit sought by developer Richard Weintraub to build two nine- and 14-story towers at 10804-20 Wilshire Boulevard. That project has landed in the courts, and it has yet to break ground.
Feuer says he’s doing everything he can to prevent other developers from doing the same thing.
“I am looking at the most effective way to deal with this issue and to do it quickly,” he said. “I have introduced a motion to do just that and a decision is still forthcoming.”
But Robert H. Sutton, the city’s deputy director of planning, says it’s unlikely that Feuer’s motion to eliminate the conditional use permit process will be approved.
“The City Attorney’s Office has told us we can’t write an ordinance without giving somebody the option to apply for something. You always have to have an option,” he said. “Every document has some means of asking for relief.”
The city attorney’s office wasn’t available for comment last week.
JFBA, meanwhile, is showing signs that it’s willing to compromise. It pulled the plug on a Planning Commission public hearing this month in which it would have appealed for a conditional use permit. And it is even considering scrapping its plan in favor of a senior residential home or possibly just renovating and expanding the hotel.
“We canceled our meeting for the sole purpose to work with the councilman and the surrounding community,” said Rob Glushon, the attorney representing JFBA. “Our take on the situation is that anything you build today is controversial. We can either go forward, put our heads down and dig in our heels, or we can engage with the various stakeholders in the community and establish a dialogue which is exactly what the owners want to do.”
For residents, density and traffic will be major concerns no matter what the development.
“We’ve had a couple of fatalities on Wilshire in the last year,” said Al Gaspar, who lives across the street from the Del Capri in a 27-story condominium complex. “People don’t take into account things like moving vans, contractors, cement mixers. A few years ago, I pulled out and was hit by a car that did $28,000 in damage to my vehicle. I don’t want that to happen again.”
The busy area is a major corridor for commuters heading to offices in Beverly Hills or farther west. The Golden Mile stretch is bordered on the east by Comstock Avenue and on the west by Malcolm Avenue.
The Del Capri has become something of a landmark, serving as a lodge for traveling performers over the years. It even attracted brief notoriety in 1958 when Lana Turner’s 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed her mother’s longtime boyfriend Johnny Stompanato, who was rumored to be involved in organized crime and lived at the hotel.
