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Maintained by
UNITE HERE Local 30
Development Partner Hits Snag at Coastal Commission Lane Field Development Team Partner’s Other Project Hits Snag at California Coastal Commission. At their January 10th meeting, members of the California Coastal Commission expressed strong concerns about a proposal by Woodfin Suites Hotels and the Port of San Diego to include timeshares as part of a 140-room full-service hotel on public tidelands. In the face of likely rejection of the plan amendment, the Port withdrew its application. The proposed site is less than three miles from Lane Field on the west end of Harbor Island. This would have been the first time individual ownership of public trust lands has been allowed. Samuel Hardage, chairman and owner of Woodfin Suites and a member of the Lane Field development team, told the Coastal Commission he needed timeshares or a subsidy to finance the Harbor Island hotel. “Simply put, interest rates are higher than practical to finance this project without some kind of subsidy or timeshare,” Hardage told the commission. The same timeshare proposal was denied in December, 2006 by the State Lands Commission, the primary guardian of the public trust. The Executive Officer of the State Lands Commission, Paul Thayer, attended the January Coastal Commission hearing to defend his agency’s position. Thayer took issue with a letter sent by Woodfin to the Coastal Commission on January 4th that describes the State Lands Commission as “inaccurately and fundamentally flawed in its decision.” At the meeting, he said: "I understand that they disagree with what we did, but I think this conclusion is unwarranted. It doesn’t reflect all of the hours staff put into analyzing this and it doesn’t respect the fact that the Lands Commission had a long public hearing on this matter, took input from the applicant and reached a decision that this project is inconsistent with the Public Trust Doctrine." After it became clear that the Coastal Commissioners were unlikely to approve the requested timeshares, Woodfin Suites and the Port withdrew their application. To watch the January 10th Coastal Commission hearing on the Woodfin timeshares, |
