A plan to build an ultra-luxury hotel complex in Los Angeles’ Benedict Canyon neighborhood is dead.
City Planning Director Vincent Bertoni revoked approval for the Bulgari Resort Wednesday due to environmental concerns, the Los Angeles Times reports. The controversial hillside hotel, which was introduced in 2018, had drawn opposition from local residents and environmental groups who worried about its impact on the Santa Monica Mountains.
The Bulgari Resort would include 58 hotel rooms, eight single-family homes, a sushi restaurant, and spa.
Save Our Canyon, which opposed the project, said the massive resort, accessible only by narrow mountain roads, could “create a life-threatening safety disaster in the event of a wildfire.” The project would also destroy hundreds of protected trees and displace some of the area’s wildlife.
Councilmember Katy Young Yaroslavsky, who represents the area, also cited ethics concerns. Land use consultant Stacey Brenner was paid more than $174,000 to lobby in support of the project while her husband was working for Yaroslavsky’s predecessor, then-Councilmember Paul Koretz.
"There is absolutely no evidence that the City Ethics Office or the City Attorney's Office were ever consulted about this clear conflict of interest," Yaroslavsky said.
L.A. City Council voted last month to ask the planning director to reconsider the project, which the Planning Department previously approved.
In a Wednesday letter to Gary Safady, the Bulgari Resort’s developer, Bertoni explained that the extent of the project’s environmental impacts “are far greater than initially anticipated,” according to the L.A. Times. He said the hillside hotel would be “inappropriate” for the location, which is near the habitats of protected and endangered species.
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