Benedict Canyon’s steep slopes offer unobstructed views, glimpses of soaring hawks, and a stillness rarely seen in the city.

But whether this leafy enclave should also house a luxury resort for the wealthy leads to fierce discussions.

The Los Angeles City Council

is expected to

Vote Tuesday on whether or not to halt a developer’s plans for the 58-room Bulgari Resort

Los Angeles.

Developer Gary Safady does

in

the process of seeking city approvals for the hotel after it hit an initial hurdle at the

towns

Planning Department several years ago.

City Councilor Katy Yaroslavsky, representing th

ice

wealthy neighborhood, tries to block the project.

The Council

Tuesday is expected

adopt her motion

Tuesday,

Vince Bertoni, city planning director, is asking to consider resuming the start of a general plan change for the project. The change is necessary because the general plan does not allow hotels in the

is

neighbourhood.

Yaroslavsky said the city’s planning staff should not waste time on the project,

whichthat

she deems it inappropriate for the Santa Monica Mountains.

Yaroslavsky too

promised to oppose the hotel during her campaign for the city council last year.

For me, preserving the Santa Monica Mountains is a core value, said Yaroslavsky, who formerly worked as a land use attorney for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Safady told The Times that Yaroslavsky’s attempt to halt development is “a disgrace”.

“I think it’s based on a campaign promise without any knowledge of its ownership or merits,” he said. “There are codified procedures built into the city to protect against this sort of thing, so its actions are completely against that.”

Safady said city officials spent thousands of hours assessing the

resort

applications, and

That

a draft environmental impact report will be published shortly.

The 33-acre lot off Hutton Drive in Benedict Canyon was once owned by businessman Kirk Kerkorian. Part of the building has already been subdivided. Safady said he stays in a small house on the property when he is in Los Angeles.

Former District 5 Councilman Paul Koretz initially supported initiating the general plan change for the project,

said according to Nora Frost, a spokesman for the

Planning Department

spokesperson Nora Frost

. The initiation application was approved by Bertoni in 2017, Frost said.

Koretz didn’t call back. He told the LA Times editors he was initially somewhere between encouragement and okay and wanted to see if

or

the neighbourhood

power

Like it

i.e

the

proposed hotel

project. He later came up against it.

Maria Salinas, general manager of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said Monday that her group supports the city’s appraisal process for development and that real estate projects like Bulgari “rely on these processes to ensure a fair appraisal.

Several major unions, including Unite Here Local 11, support the

project. hotel.

Mayor Karen Bass opposed

the project last year

on the campaign track;

her, although it is unclear if she still does. bass

Spokesman Zach Seidl was unable to comment on her position on Monday.

There are two competitors

community

groups: Save Our Canyon, which opposes the project, and Enhance Our Canyon, which supports it.

Celebrities have taken sides:

of

Singer Lance Bass supports

scary

It; others, including actress Jacqueline Bisset, have warned of increased fire risks.

of the project.

The hotel would consist of a dozen bungalows, along with a free-standing 58-room building. Also planned are a sushi restaurant, spa, screening room and parking garage. Eight private homes on the property could range from 12,000 to 48,000 square feet each, Safady said.

He estimated that

some

50 to 70 employees would work in the hotel. To cope with the flow of cars on the ravine roads, a carpool program for

hotel

employees would be set, he said.

Safady suggested that the hotel be less prominent and have less of an impact than if large mansions were built

on the land

. A developer could split up the 33 acre lot and

building set up

30 houses, he said.

When asked about that statement, Yaroslavsky said, “If Mr. Safady would like

Unpleasant

withdraw his proposal and submit a new housing plan based on what this property is currently zoned for, which he certainly should.

“The amount of housing that would be allowed on this site would be much less heavily used than a commercial hotel, which has not been allowed in the Santa Monica Mountains for 80 years.”

she noted.

It is far from clear whether Yaroslavsky has the support of her colleagues

in an effort to stop the project, to try and stop the hotel.

Councilman Hugo Soto-Martnez, a former organizer of Unite Here Local 11, is “still considering his position on the matter,” his spokesman Nick Barnes-Batista said Monday.

Two councilors declined to support Yaroslavsky’s motion at a March meeting of Planning and Land Use

management

Commission.

Shouldn’t we allow due process?

said early

Councilman John Lee, representing the northwestern San Fernando Valley. Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who also represents the Valley, expressed similar concerns.

Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, representing South LA, sided with Yaroslavsky.

At that meeting, Yaroslavsky said she was told by staff at the city attorney’s office that it was at the discretion of the

[Planning Department] department

to repeat the process they started.

She also mentioned several local wildfires in the region since the application process for the hotel started.

The city is going south anyway” by the developer, she added.

Yaroslavsky said in an interview last week that there is precedent for reversing a general change to the plan, pointing to the 2016 council decision that ultimately stopped a developer from pursuing a plan to build hundreds of apartments along the Cahuenga Pass.

In that case developer

Behzad Forat

later to the south of the city, but lost. In an interview on Sunday, Forat said he will appeal the court’s decision. Hi

So

expressed his dissatisfaction with the municipality.

“[City officials] cry about the fact that there is a housing shortage, but then they stop people from building,” Forat said.

In a twist, land use attorney Fred Gaines represented Forat at the Cahuenga Pass project in his dealings with the city. Gaines is now working with Save Our Canyon, which opposes the Bulgari Resort.

Earlier this month, Gaines sent a letter to the council suggesting that the project had been unfairly rushed through the initiation process.

The king of the planning department

said

the request was “treated like all requests received by the department.