City Takes Manchester Resort to State Panel

OCEANSIDE, CA-City officials will take their case for a waterfront resort proposed by Douglas Manchester to the California Coastal Commission in Long Beach on Tuesday. The 9 a.m. hearing, which will be held on the Queen Mary, is expected to draw large numbers of both opponents and supporters of the beachside project.

Planning Director Gerald Gilbert told state commissioners in a letter distributed to City Council members yesterday that the project does not take away large amounts of parking, protects lower-cost visitor facilities, will not adversely affect traffic, doesn’t put too big a project on the beach and provides access to a proposed public plaza.

Those are all objections raised by the commission staff to the $120-million, 400-room hotel project.

Manchester Resorts proposes a project on a two-block area bounded by Pacific and Myers streets, Seagaze Drive and Pier View Way. Also part of the project is a proposed 150-suite vacation time-share project on the adjacent property between Pier View Way and Civic Center Drive.

Most of the protest has been centered on Manchester’s proposal to close Pacific Street and build twin 12-story hotel towers.