A developer’s proposal for a luxury hotel in the Santa Monica Mountains may continue to make its way through the review process after the Los Angeles City Council stalled on Tuesday over a council member’s attempt to block the project.

The city council voted 7 to 7 on a motion by council member Katy Yaroslavsky asking the city’s planning director to withdraw a general plan amending the proposed Bulgari Resort.

Los Angeles

at Benedict Canyon.

Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westside district, wants to halt any further planning of the 58-room hotel.

The councilman states that the resort is not suitable for the Santa Monica Mountains. She also alleges an ethical conflict involving a former city staffer who oversaw planning issues in the borough she now represents. The former employee denies wrongdoing.

“I am deeply disappointed,” Yaroslavsky said after Tuesday’s vote.

“This is a bad project,” she added. “The trial was deeply flawed. It is Exhibit A for the

the

idea that if you pay enough money to enough lobbyists and you pay for a [labor project agreement]you can build whatever you want, wherever you want.”

Tuesday’s vote means that Yaroslavsky’s motion will return to the city council for another vote on Wednesday.

Yaroslavsky said she has not yet decided on her next steps.

The vote was in advance

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It was a tense few hours at City Hall as dozens of Benedict Canyon residents, lobbyists and workers from various labor groups poured into council chambers to watch proceedings.

Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, chair of the city’s land use committee, said he’s seen few projects with such “intense lobbying.”

Among those who attended Tuesday’s rally was “Hart to Hart” actress Stefanie

Powers, who said she has lived in Benedict Canyon since the 1960s. As an opponent of the hotel, she told the council member that the “future of this planet” is “not good” and that drew loud applause.

Councilors also spent more than an hour behind closed doors in private conversations with legal advisers about Jaroslavsky’s motion.

Traci Park, a member of the Westside Council who voted against Yaroslavsky’s motion, was among those expressing concern about the wildlife and fire risks posed by the Benedict Canyon development. But she didn’t want to pull the plug on the project without more information, she suggested.

“The [environmental impact review] what I expect to address these issues is not even for us yet because the process is not yet complete,” Park said.

Developer Gary Safady took a first hurdle with the

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welding

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apartment in October 2017 when the city

director of

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Director

Vince Bertoni allowed him to make a change to the general plan for a hotel resort in Benedict Canyon. The hilly area is not intended for hotel use.

The previous representative of the city office, Paul Koretz, had initially supported the project.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Yaroslavsky questioned Koretz’s office’s handling of the hotel project, arguing that there was a

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ethical conflict because one of the land use consultants hired for the hotel is married to Koretz’s

former

planning obligation.

In January 2017, consultant Stacey Brenner registered as a lobbyist for the project,

according to city documents.

Shawn Bayliss, Koretz’s deputy planning officer, left Koretz’s office in May 2017.

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was also on leave around March 2017 when the couple’s daughter was born, he said.

“Getting carried away while not involved in this project surprises me,” Bayliss said. Brenner declined to comment.

Brenner is one of several consultants who worked on the project.

Safady told The Times that he had “minimal” contact with Bayliss. He said the contact happened in 2015 when he started planning the project.

Yaroslavsky also filed a motion on Tuesday, supported by Councilman Tim McOsker, seeking to tighten the city’s lobbying rules.

The motion would bar a close relative of a council member from lobbying that council office about proposed or ongoing development projects in the council member’s district.

San Fernando Valley Council member Monica Rodriguez who voted against Yaroslavsky’s motion said she was troubled by “unproven” allegations made by Yaroslavsky against Bayliss and Brenner.

“I’m just concerned about using that as a means of balancing the decisions we’re making around this horseshoe in terms of land use,” she said.