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PC - PUBLIC HEARING: (1) Adoption of an Addendum to the 2021 Mitigated Negative Declaration per CEQA and (2) Consideration of a Site Plan Review and Administrative Use Permit (P2024-0246-SPR/AUP) to allow the development of a 147-room hotel with ground floor restaurant spaces located at 11469 Jefferson Boulevard
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Meeting Date: October 22, 2025
Contact Person/Dept: William Kavadas, Assistant Planner
Emily Stadnicki, Current Planning Manager
Phone Number: 310-253-5706 / 310-253-5727
Fiscal Impact: Yes [ ] No [X] General Fund: Yes [ ] No [X]
Public Hearing: [X] Action Item: [ ] Attachments: Yes [X] No [ ]
City Council Action Required: Yes [ ] No [ X ] Date: [N/A]
Public Notification: (Email) Public Notifications - Planning Commission (10/01/25); (Posted) City website (10/01/25); Social Media (10/02/25); (Mailed) Property owners and occupants within a 500 ft radius (09/30/25); (Posted) on-site sign (10/01/25); (Email/Posted) Meetings and Agendas - Planning Commission (10/16/25)
Department Approval: Mark E. Muenzer, Planning and Development Director (10/15/25)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the Planning Commission adopt a resolution (1) adopting an addendum to the 2021 Mitigated Negative Declaration per the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and (2) approving a Site Plan Review and Administrative Use Permit request (P2024-0246-SPR/AUP), to allow the development of a 147-room hotel with ground floor coffee shop and restaurant spaces.
PROCEDURES
1. Chair calls on staff for a staff report and the Planning Commission poses questions to staff.
2. Chair opens the public hearing, providing the applicant and public the opportunity to speak.
3. Chair seeks a motion to close the public hearing after all testimony has been presented.
4. Commission discusses the matter and arrives at its decision.
BACKGROUND
The subject property was approved for a five-story, 175-room boutique hotel with restaurant, rooftop pool and bar, and two levels of subterranean parking, on July 12, 2021. Since the entitlement was granted, that applicant has applied for 4 extensions as they sought the necessary funding to construct the project.
This applicant team obtained permission from the owner to act as applicant for the subject entitlement prior to sale of the land; they approached the City in 2024 to inquire about reducing the scope of the project to better reflect current market conditions that make the original project infeasible. The modified Project has reduced the square footage from 111,000 square feet to 109,800 square feet and reduced the room count from 175 to 147. Several amenities have been removed including meeting rooms, a lounge, and a rooftop bar (and rooftop pool). This reduction in project scope has been studied as part of an updated environmental addendum (Attachment 8) and discussed later in this report.
Existing Conditions
The Project site is a 33,813 square foot parcel located on the northwest corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Slauson Avenue. The site is currently occupied by a single-story, 13,000 square foot commercial shopping center including retail and restaurant uses with a surface parking lot and landscaped areas.
Zoning/General Plan/Surroundings
The subject property is zoned Mixed Use Corridor 2 (MU-2) but was deemed complete before the Zoning Code Update and thus was reviewed under the previous Commercial General (CG) zone standards. As shown on Attachment 2 - Vicinity Map, the Project site is bounded by Jefferson Boulevard to the southeast and Slauson Avenue to the southwest with a public alley to the northwest. Commercial uses border the site on 3 sides with single-family residential uses to the northwest across an alley.
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Zoning |
Land Use |
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North |
R1 |
Single Family Residences |
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East |
MU-2 |
General Retail |
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South |
MU-I (Industrial) |
Personal Storage |
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West |
MU-2 |
Automotive Repair |
The larger neighborhood area includes commercial uses to the east and south of the project site and the intersection of Interstate 405 and State Route 90 is located to the Project’s southwest.
Project Description
The applicant proposes to demolish all existing on-site improvements and construct a 5-story, 147-room hotel with one level of at-grade and one level of below grade parking. Ground floor amenities will include a lobby, fitness room, employee offices and rest areas, a restaurant/bar space, and a coffee shop space. The upper floors will include guest rooms with a pool and amenities deck on level 2.
The ground floor restaurant will be rented out to a third-party operator. The applicant has applied for an Administrative Use Permit to allow ancillary alcohol sales at the future restaurant as well as for sale to hotel guests in the lobby for in-room consumption. Project details and plan layout are provided in the Project Summary (Attachment 3) and the Preliminary Development Plans (Attachment 4).
ANALYSIS
Site Plan Review
The applicant is requesting Site Plan Review approval of the Preliminary Development Plans with conditions of approval, included as Exhibits A and B to Resolution No. 2025-P015.
Land Use and Development Standards: The Project proposes a hotel with ground floor commercial uses consistent with the land use provisions of the (former) CG zone and meets all Culver City Municipal Code (CCMC) development standards including height and setback.
Architectural Design and Landscaping: The Project is designed in a modern architectural style with stucco exterior in darker earth tones. The ground floor facing Slauson Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard is made up of a glass façade that opens the ground floor to the public right-of-way. Upper floors have well-windowed elevations that help to reduce the mass and bulk of the building.
The eastern façade of the structure will be largely solid as it borders a zero-setback lot line but will have a similar color palette as the rest of the building. The rear elevation faces an alleyway and residential neighborhood. The building will provide a 60-degree clear zone to setback the building on upper floors. The applicant team has removed the room balconies from the original proposal to limit viewsheds into the adjacent neighborhood. The pool and amenity deck are proposed in the center of the building and will not be visible to adjacent properties or the public right-of-way.
Traffic, Parking, Mobility, and Circulation: Based on a supplemental traffic impact study (Attachment 8), the modified Project’s vehicles trips would be reduced by a net 835 trips daily, 5 morning peak hour trips, and 74 afternoon peak hour trips, as compared to the original project. Pedestrian and vehicular access is provided primarily from Slauson Avenue. Sidewalks and paved public streets provide pedestrian access to public transit services along Jefferson and Sepulveda Boulevards including Big Blue Bus 14, Culver City Bus 2, 3, 4, and 6, and Metro Local 108 and 110.
The applicant has provided 10 short-term bike parking spaces adjacent to the main entrance of the hotel and 10 long-term bike parking spaces in the parking garage adjacent to the hotel elevators. The total number of bike parking spaces exceeds the minimum requirement of 5 short- and 5 long-term bike parking per CCMC.
Although Culver City no longer has minimum parking requirements, the applicant has proposed 105 parking spaces. Based on experience with similar projects they have developed, the applicant team has determined that number will provide enough spaces for guests and employees, as the bulk of their clientele (business travelers) will travel to and from the hotel by rideshare and public transit, or carpool with coworkers. The Project meets Code standards for electric vehicle (EV) parking by providing 12 EV charging spaces, 11 EV ready spaces, and 21 EV capable spaces.
The reduction of 45 parking spaces also results in the removal of one level of underground parking. Only 29 of the 105 parking spaces will be accessed exclusively from the alley, while the remaining 76 below-grade parking spaces will be accessed from Slauson Avenue and will exit through the alley back onto Slauson Avenue. Light from automobiles accessing the Project site from the alley way are not expected to impact adjacent residences as the fencing along the alley way is solid and would not allow for light trespass.
The applicant team expects smaller vans to make most deliveries to the hotel; they will park in the drop off zone outside the main lobby. If larger trucks are required, the Public Works Mobility and Traffic Engineering Division has approved a loading area adjacent to the coffee shop tenant space on Slauson Avenue. The Mobility Division has also conditioned the Project to require left turns only into the alleyway from the drop-off zone to direct through traffic back to Slauson Avenue and Jefferson Boulevards.
A draft Construction Management Plan is included as Attachment 5, this document details best practices that will be incorporated during the Project’s development. As conditioned, the applicant team will complete a final Construction Management Plan once a contractor has been selected for the Project; that final document will be reviewed by the City prior to permit issuance.
Noise/Vibration: Construction noise was studied as part of the Mitigated Negative Declaration (CEQA process) and is expected to be less than significant. Mobile heavy construction equipment is anticipated to create noise between 74 and 90 decibels at distance of 50 feet from the noise source, but the applicant will construct a sound wall adjacent to residential uses which is projected to keep noise levels at 70 decibels, consistent with Noise Element standards. Further, the removal of one level of underground parking means there will be overall less construction vehicle trips to the site based on earlier iterations of the project. Vibration impacts are also below thresholds of significance for potential building impacts or human perception.
Operational noise impacts from automobiles and mechanical equipment were also studied as part of the CEQA process and determined not to surpass the significant noise impact threshold of a 5 decibel increase over ambient noise conditions. Further previous project components such as room balconies and a rooftop pool and bar have also been removed, thus reducing exterior noise sources.
Administrative Use Permit
Pending the appropriate approvals from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), the ground floor restaurant space proposes to have food service in conjunction with on-site alcohol consumption (Type 47 license) and the front desk will sell alcoholic beverages in closed containers for consumption on the premises by overnight hotel guests only (Type 70 license). An Administrative Use Permit (AUP) is required to serve and/or sell alcohol in the CG zone for properties located within 300 feet of residentially zoned properties.
While the restaurant tenant has not been determined, the AUP is conditioned such that any future restaurant tenant must submit a conformance review to the Current Planning Division to ensure that the restaurant tenant complies with the conditions of approval and will not create a nuisance to adjacent uses. The restaurant use will be conditioned to serve a full menu during hours of operation to prevent conversion into a bar-like use during nighttime hours.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION
The previous project was approved under a certified Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) (Attachment 7) in 2021. As part of the modified Project, an addendum to the MND was prepared (Attachment 8), per CEQA Section 15164(a). The addendum to the MND determined that the revised Project fell below the thresholds, scale, and built area for the certified MND. All previous mitigation measures from the original MND will be implemented as part of the modified Project.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Pursuant to the City’s Community Outreach Guidelines, the applicant hosted 2 hybrid community meetings introducing the Project and providing information regarding the revised design, uses, parking, circulation, and review process. Meeting minutes are included in Attachment 6 and meetings summaries are provided below:
1st Community Meeting - October 2, 2024: 27 people attended (excluding staff and applicant team) and issues raised included the following:
• Overbuilding of the site;
• Privacy due to window placement along the alley;
• Number of parking spaces;
• Construction/noise impacts;
• Updated environmental studies;
• Traffic flow and impacts on alleyway throughput;
• Property crime caused by future hotel guests; and
• Keeping mitigation measures from the original project.
2nd Community Meeting - June 17, 2025: 17 people attended the meeting (excluding staff and applicant team) and key concerns included:
• Construction/noise impacts;
• Permit parking districts in the surrounding residential neighborhoods;
• Impacts on surrounding property values;
• Traffic flow and impacts on alleyway throughput; and
• Desire for community benefits within the hotel such as day pass offerings for amenities.
The modified Project is a reduction in area, room count, parking, and amenities from the previous project. At the request of the public, a look back condition has been carried over from the previous approval that requires the applicant to fund a parking permit study if the City determines that Project parking intrudes on nearby residential streets. The applicant has designed the rooms without any outdoor balconies to reduce the potential of noise to adjacent properties and sited the pool in the center of the site to minimize adjacency impacts. The proposed coffee shop tenant space has also been proposed by the applicant team as an incubator for local entrepreneurs.
A public notice was mailed to all property owners and occupants within a 500-foot radius of the Project site extended to city block on October 1, 2025, advising the public of a hearing at the regularly scheduled Planning Commission meeting of October 22, 2025. As of the writing of this report, staff has received one letter of opposition to this project, included as Attachment 9. The opposition letter was concerned with noise, light and glare, project ownership, public notification, and school safety. Staff notes that El Marino Elementary School lies more than 900 feet from the subject site, so construction noise and school parking impacts are not expected be an issue, per the CEQA studies.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
Approval of a hotel use will result in Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) to be collected by the City as a result of additional visitors. The project will be subject to impact fees which will be collected at the time of issuance of the certificate of occupancy.
CONCLUSION
The Project is a modification to a previously approved project (with the same use) and has demonstrated that a reduction in square footage, room count, and amenity space will result in fewer impacts than the original, while remaining consistent with the General Plan, Zoning Code, and all CCMC requirements.
The new Project is well designed in a modern style and will replace an existing aging strip mall with a new use that presents a pleasant street frontage at one of the main entry corridors to Culver City. Based on the analysis herein, staff asserts the findings for the Project entitlements as outlined in the proposed Resolution can be made and recommends that the Planning Commission approve the Project, as conditioned.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Proposed Planning Commission Resolution No. 2025-P015 with Exhibit A, Conditions of Approval and Exhibit B, Code Requirements
2. Vicinity Map
3. Project Summary
4. Preliminary Development Plans dated April 2024
5. Draft Construction Management Plan
6. Community Meeting Summaries
7. Certified MND
8. Addendum to the MND with Supplemental Traffic Impact Study
9. Public Comment Received
MOTION
That the Planning Commission adopt Resolution No. 2025-P015 (1) adopting an Addendum to the 2021 Mitigated Negative Declaration per CEQA and (2) approving Site Plan Review and Administrative Use Permit request for Project P2024-0246-SPR/AUP, subject to the conditions of approval as stated in the resolution.