A lawsuit to halt a Grover Beach hotel until it complies with the state Coastal Act has been filed against the city by an organization called the North Grover Beach Neighborhood Alliance.

The lawsuit claims the Grover Beach City Council violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as well as the city's own General Plan, which it also claims is inconsistent with the city's Local Coastal Plan.

The suit coincides with an appeal of the project by two members of the California Coastal Commission and, in some respects, parallels that appeal.

Filed Oct. 26 by San Luis Obispo lawyer Babak Naficy on behalf of the Neighborhood Alliance, the lawsuit asks the court to force the city to void its approval of the Pacific Coast Hotel project and the certification of its mitigated negative environmental declaration.

It also asks the court to declare that the approval violated CEQA and the government code and seeks a permanent injunction against construction of the hotel until CEQA requirements are met, including the preparation of a full environmental impact report.

The suit also seeks reimbursement of attorney fees and court costs.

Grover Beach City Manager Bob Perrault defended the city's approval of the project.

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“As far as the city is concerned, the city supported the project, it was approved by a 3-2 vote at the council level, and the city is confident it has done due diligence in terms of process and procedures,” Perrault said.

But the lawsuit claims the city failed to adequately analyze the project's environmental impacts, describe the project and analyze inconsistencies with land-use regulations.

Ron Perkins, chief executive officer of IGIT Inc. in Grover Beach, which is developing the project, could not be reached for comment by press time.

However, Mike Wilson, president of the Neighborhood Alliance, said the nonprofit corporation has no interest in stopping development in Grover Beach.

“The city needs the revenue from development,” he said. “We just want to make sure it's done right.”

Wilson said the Neighborhood Alliance has about 15 members, with a five-member board, and was incorporated in 2001 to provide public oversight of projects as they relate to compliance with the Local Coastal Plan and the Coastal Act.

“Grover Beach is one of the last funky beach towns in California, and there have been so many city managers there's been a lack of continuity” in

following the Local Coastal Plan, he said.

Alliance members are concerned the Pacific Coast Hotel could set a precedent for density along Highway 1 that would allow “building a veritable wall that sits between Grover Beach and the ocean, and that would be a huge problem with the LCP,” Wilson said.

Naficy said the appeal before the Coastal Commission addresses the project's consistency with the LCP, while the lawsuit addresses its violation of CEQA.

A main focus of the lawsuit is how the density was calculated for the 20-unit hotel/condominium project that includes five retail spaces - one designated for a cafe - with a 37-space underground parking garage and an observation tower.

Naficy explained that parcel ownership generally extends to the middle of adjoining streets, in this case Highway 1 and West Grand Avenue.

“In some sense, you own it, but it's a major thoroughfare with traffic whizzing by, so you would not build up to the middle of (Highway 1),” Naficy said.

“Yet the city counted that area, and when it calculated what was allowed on the site, it was based on that entire lot rather that the actual buildable site.”

“I've been doing land-use law about 10 years,” he added, “and I've honestly never seen a city calculate density on land in the middle of Highway 1.”

Wilson said the Neighborhood Alliance is also concerned that the Grover Beach LCP allows 20 units per acre, but that is inconsistent with the General Plan, which allows just seven units per acre in the project area.

“Even if we accede the 20 units, they're also building five more commercial units on one-sixth of an acre, which brings the density up to something remarkable,” he said.

Naficy and Wilson both said the North Grover Beach Neighborhood Alliance intends to testify at the Coastal Commission appeal hearing, although no date has been set for that.

But Naficy also said whether the lawsuit will go forward or wait for the commission's decision may be discussed at a case management conference set for 9 a.m. Dec. 11 in Department 3 of San Luis Obispo County Superior Court.

That conference will be held before Judge Teresa Estrada-Mullaney after Naficy and his client petitioned to have Judge Barry LaBarbera disqualified based on prejudice.

But Naficy would not discuss the prejudice issue.

“I'm not going to comment on that,” he said. “I'm not going to get into that.”

November 23, 2007