Cart before the horse with hotel?
With the clock ticking on the deadline to place items on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, members of the Poway City Council on July 19 agreed to have voters decide whether land use density at the Maderas Golf Club should be increased so that a high-end hotel can be built.
Sunroad Enterprises, owner of the golf course, is seeking approval to build a hotel of up to 240 rooms to lure people to the nationally ranked course and bolster its struggling bottom line. Company President Uri Feldman estimated the hotel would likely generate about $1.5 million annually in transient occupancy taxes along with new jobs and higher surrounding property values.
Because the proposed use involves increasing the intensity of the land use within the area, a citywide vote is required under Proposition FF, approved by voters in 1988. The City Council, without taking a position on the matter, paved the way for the vote by approving an amendment to the Old Coach Golf Estates Specific Plan and an addendum to the golf course’s environmental impact report. The November vote will ask for voter approval of the amendment.
If the November measure passes with a simple majority, Sunroad will then submit specific development plans for the hotel, which will be subjected to city review and one or more public hearings.
That’s right; voters in November will be approving only the specific plan amendment, which would allow development of the hotel, not the specific project. Feldman told the council last week that Sunroad doesn’t want to proceed with the costly process of preparing specific plans, an environmental report and related documents until after first obtaining voter approval of a land use density increase.
We can see his point, but we also see the merits of voters being given as many details as possible as to the size of the hotel and its associated uses. All that is known at this point is that the hotel will be about 100,000 square feet and will comply with all city building standards, including being no more than two stories in height.
Several golf course neighbors raised questions during the council meeting regarding the hotel’s possible impact on traffic, especially in the case of a wildfire evacuation. Some expressed concerns about noise, about the lack of specific details and said the last-minute timing of the ballot request seemed little suspicious.
To us, this seems a bit like putting the cart before the horse, but so be it. Both the applicant and concerned neighbors will be able to state their cases through ballot arguments and campaign literature. We urge Poway voters to pay attention and be as knowledgeable as possible before casting their ballots.
