By Niki Cervantes
Staff Writer

December 17, 2015 -- Threatened with litigation, the Santa Monica City Council Tuesday agreed to a motion meant to give the developer of a long-debated 270-bedroom hotel on Wilshire Boulevard a stronger chance of coming back -– for a third time -- with blueprints that pass muster.

The Council’s vote on Tuesday came just a week after it rejected plans for the hotel at 710 Wilshire Boulevard, telling the property owner and developer, Alexander Gorby, to come back with a redesign that meets City standards.

Gorby was highly frustrated by the setback, one of several in the more than three-year saga of the project, said Christopher Harding, his attorney.

Harding said he sent a letter last Thursday to City officials threatening to sue, but adding that the matter could be resolved otherwise if the City was more specific about what it wanted from Gorby.

The six-point motion approved by the Council was its reply, said City Attorney Attorney Marsha Moutrie. Most of it focuses on action by Joint Design Review Body (JDRB), which was created in 2012 to review and approve designs for the project.

“I think the concern was the client (Gorby) was not getting clear information on how to proceed,” Moutrie said of the new agreement, which was on the Tuesday agenda for discussion during closed session.

She detailed the agreement later during open session. It was approved unanimously

Harding said his client was heartened by the motion.

“Litigation was the last resort,” Harding said. “Our goal was move this forward. We are really pleased.”

Included in the motion is a requirement that the JDRB hold a public workshop on architectural design before January 31, that it provide “clear and concrete” direction to the developer and that the special panel follow up with input within 30 days of any changes made to the project.

If the JDRB’s final decision is appealed, the motion also calls on the Council to act on it within 60 days.

The council voted in March of 2012 to approve the project that includes the adaptive reuse of the landmarked Santa Monica Professional Building. But the project required approvals from the Landmarks Commission and the Architectural Review Board, so the Council set up the JDRB to review the plans. It is composed of members of both panels.

The special panel reviewed the project in June 2014, reviewed it again three months later after several changes had been made, and again in September, when it approved a Certificate of Appropriateness regarding landmark issues.

It did not, however, approve the building’s design.

Gorby appealed in October, saying his plans addressed those issues. City staff recommended the Council approve the appeal.

But the Council did not. Instead, it voted on December 8 to tell the developer to go back to the drawing board and return with a plan that it said would meet City standards.

Harding said his client was upset because he felt the Council did not give him adequate direction. After working to reach a living-wage agreement for future hotel employees and making numerous changes to the hotel’s plans, Gorby had reached a point where he did not know exactly how to proceed, Harding said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, however, Council Member Kevin McKeown said he thought the Council had been clear at last week’s meeting.

“We support it,” he said the project. “But we want it to be a great building.”

Harding said the comment was welcomed by Gorby. He said Gorby was unsure if the Council supported the project at all after last week’s vote.