City committee rejects appeal to stop Tommie micro hotel in Hollywood

A Los Angeles City Council committee on Tuesday unanimously rejected two appeals of its approval of an eight-story hotel planned for a Hollywood parking lot on Selma Avenue between Wilcox and Schraeder.

One of many hotels set to rise in the area, this one has drawn complaints from some residents who say the Tommie hotel would have too many rooms and draw a particularly raucous crowd.

Attorney Daniel Wright, representing one of the appellants, Sunset Landmark Investment, LLC, on behalf of the notoriously density-averse Silverstein Law Firm, called the development an “over-dense, noise-generating nuisance project” and a “party hotel.”

Developed by Five Chairs, a subsidiary of Hollywood International Regional Center, the hotel would be part of the new Tommie brand of micro hotels being launched by HIRC partner Two Roads Hospitality. The hotel operator describes the new chain as a “youthful and open-minded” place for guests to “share cutting-edge perspectives with visiting cultural influencers, artists and entrepreneurs.”

Plans for the project have already been approved by the city’s planning commission, but the appellants both argued that the project should be subject to a more extensive environmental review.

Wright told the Planning and Land Use Management Committee that construction on the project would significantly affect air quality in the area due to the presence of diesel trucks that could put students at a nearby elementary school at risk.

The other appeal was filed by the UNITE HERE Local 11 union, along with several individual community members. Representing the group, lawyer Gideon Kracov said that the project would be more beneficial to the community as housing, given the glut of new hotels planned for the area.

The members of the committee, however, were not persuaded by those arguments and quickly denied the appeals. Barring a major legal challenge, the project should still be on schedule to wrap up in 2018.

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