Tent flap: Planning commission re-considers Ritz permit Thursday night

The Ritz’s application to erect a 6,000 sq. ft. tent on its property will be considered by the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission for a third time on Thursday night.

The Ritz’s long-term goal is to get approval to put up the tent for events between May and October annually.  Tomorrow night, they’re seeking a 28-day temporary permit to put up the tent until the Planning Commission reviews its application for the period through October on May 12.

The Review reported last week that "The long-term plan calls for an indefinite permit that would allow the tent to be erected each year for 180 days." According to Ritz general manager Paul Ratchford, they would only put up the tent when an event was scheduled and take it down after each event is over. The confusion is understandable, as it’s not clear from the documentation what the resort’s plans are.  Ratchford also told me that he expects to have to re-apply for a permit annually. The Planning Commission could resolve both these questions tomorrow night.

The Ritz has already scheduled the tent space for eleven different events from May 7 to June 26, with clients that include Hewlett Packard, Allegis Capital, and Prudential. It expects the tent to increase its revenue by $1 million per year, which it says would result in $100,000 in tax revenue for the city of Half Moon Bay.

According to planning commissioner Jack McCarthy, "Many people from Ocean Colony testified that they had issues" at the original meeting to discuss the permit on April 11. Among the issues were applicability of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), parking, hours of operation, access to tennis courts, safety, and noise. The latest application from the Ritz includes a letter from the Ocean Colony Association saying that the Ritz has addressed the issues that Ocean Colony residents have with the tent. At the meeting on Thursday, April 21 the commission declined to rule on the application and put off a decision until Thursday, May 12. According to McCarthy, the decision was delayed to give the commission time to study the application and the community plenty of notice before voting on it.

The hotel was bought by Strategic Hotel Capital last July for $124 million. In its application to put up the tent the Ritz acknowledges that it doesn’t have enough conference rooms or parking, saying "the resort, when it opened, was incomplete on opening day in 2001. The new ownership is developing a master plan for the resort that addresses the shortage of meeting facilities and parking spaces, basically finishing the resort to accommodate demand."  You can download the backup documentation to the Ritz’s application from Coastsider.