Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort Expansion
The proposed project is to permit the expansion of the existing twelve-story Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort by adding a new nine-story tower. The project site is located on approximately 3.71 acres adjacent (east) to the existing Hilton hotel and is part of a larger master planned development (approximately 45 acres) known as The Waterfront Development Project. The proposed hotel expansion will include minor modifications to the existing Hilton hotel in order to facilitate an integrated experience for guests. Such modifications include: new main level corridors, pedestrian connections between existing and new pools, conversion of existing guestrooms to other uses, parking structure connection, and various landscaping and walkway revisions. The proposed architectural style of the new tower is contemporary Mediterranean consistent with the overall master planned development. The proposed building forms, architectural details, colors, landscaping and style are intended to be consistent with the existing Hilton hotel. The project includes requests for dancing, live entertainment, and sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages at the food and beverage outlets, ballrooms, meeting areas, lounges, pool deck, and function lawns in the same manner currently offered at the existing Hyatt and Hilton hotels. Parking will be provided in the expansion project in one level of 100% valet service with tandem parking spaces below the main public level of the building.

The subject project represents the fourth and final phase of the master planned development, which was originally approved in 1989. The existing development consists of the 290-room Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort which opened in 1990, the 517-room Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa approved in 1998 and opened in 2003, and the 184-unit Waterfront residential community approved in 2002 and completed in 2004. A Commercial Master Site Plan was approved in conjunction with the original Hilton hotel (Phase 1) in 1989 and later amended as part of the 1998 Hyatt Regency development (Phase 2) pursuant to the DTSP Section 4.11.02. The Commercial Master Site Plan is intended to guide the long-term development of the site as an integrated resort development, phasing the project in an orderly manner and providing for a common theme of uses, architecture, landscaping and pedestrian links. The intent is to provide an integrated development plan of differing but compatible hotels and conference facilities that provide a number of alternative accommodations for visitors and residents of the City. In addition, a Development Agreement (DA) for the Waterfront Development Project was originally approved in 1988 to provide certainty for the City and the applicant as to the desired land use, intensity, vesting of rights, and provisions for mutual benefits. The DA was last amended in 1998 as part of the Hyatt Regency development and the current request is to extend the existing term by 5-years to allow for completion of the final phase (Hilton expansion).

Public Documents:

Planning Commission Staff Report 3.13.12

Request for Council Action 5.7.12