LA Council deals major blow to controversial Bulgari Hotel project

The L.A. City Council has voted 8-6 to pass a motion requesting the city’s planning director freeze an ongoing approval process for developer Gary Safady’s Bulgari Hotel project, dealing a major blow to one of the city’s highest-profile — and most contested —  developments. 

Wednesday’s vote was the second time the council took up the motion, from District 5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, a longtime opponent of the project. In May, at the previous vote, the council deadlocked 7-7. 

The vote in favor came with a change from Councilmember Traci Park, who represents District 11, which covers much of the city’s West Side. Park had previously voted against the motion but voted in favor on Wednesday. Councilmember Imelda Padilla, a new member who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, abstained.

“Today the Los Angeles City Council stood with hundreds of community members and environmental leaders who have been fighting for years to protect the Santa Monica Mountains from this hotel,” Yaroslavsky said in a statement.

The vote does not outright kill Safady’s project, although it amounts to a major setback. The motion recommends, although does not mandate, that the city planning director rescind the initiation of an ongoing process to consider a required zone change for the hotel. 

“This is about the council taking a stand on this project,” Leo Daube, a spokesperson for Yaroslavsky, told TRD shortly before the vote. “We’re saying, ‘We don’t think it’s a good idea. Planning director, would you please reconsider?’”  

A representative for the project did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote.

Safady’s project, which would be the first Bulgari Hotel property on the West Coast, has been the subject of a toxic development fight for years, with proponents arguing it would represent a low-impact eco-friendly retreat that would benefit the wealthy neighborhood and opponents claiming it would amount to an environmental catastrophe. 

But the fight took on new significance earlier this summer, when Yaroslavsky, a leading opponent, raised ethical concerns about the developer’s lobbying efforts. In 2017, in the early planning stages, Safady hired a lobbyist for the project who is married to the then-planning deputy for District 5, where the project is located. 

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“I’m a former land use attorney, and this project does not pass the smell test,” Yaroslavsky declared at the May council meeting. “I do not ask for this vote lightly, but I strongly believe it is necessary to protect the integrity of our planning process.” 

Safady and the former city staffer at the center of the controversy have pushed back against the allegations.

Even as that development controversy was left in limbo, the city was roiled by a new real estate controversy in June, when the South L.A. Councilmember Curren Price was hit with multiple corruption-related criminal charges, including allegations that Price’s wife’s consulting firm received more than $150,000 from developers before Price voted to approve their projects. Price has maintained his innocence, and recently returned to the council after missing several weeks because of the charges. 

Safady’s Bulgari Hotel plans include a 10,000-square-foot spa, top-quality Italian and sushi restaurants, a private cinema, 18 guest bungalow buildings and eight private estates.