(Editor’s note: Update: Senator Ben Allen’s office reached out to CTN on October 21 and said “This was an effort led by the Budget committee which we were not involved with. Happy to delve further into it however.” CTN asked his office top please do that to find out who led this legislation.”)
AB 178 passed the California legislature in September 2024 and prevents residents from having input about the upcoming Gladstone’s project. Ca. State Senator Ben Allen and Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin voted for AB 178, but Palisades residents were unaware of this trailer bill. Now residents want to know who wrote it and why it became law. Allen, Irwin and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath were asked.
Ben Allen
But it appears no one knows “nuthin” about AB 178, which is keeping residents from voicing concerns about Gladstone’s restaurant and its parking lot at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard.
CTN asked Allen’s office via email on October 13, “Did Senator Allen help push AB 178? Or did that go through Irwin’s office?”
The same question was asked of Irwin’s office. Subsequent emails were sent on October 15 to both offices. No answer came from either representative.
Jacqui Irwin
Today, both offices were called and staff was told of the 5 p.m. deadline. There was no answer, no explanation, no statement.
Horvath has said on several occasions that the approval of Gladstone project was before her time. AB 178, passed September 2024, and she was asked about her awareness of the law.
On October 15, Horvath’s media spokesperson Constance Farrell said she had nothing to do with the bill, “she did not lead it, she did not endorse it.”
Farrell was asked by CTN, “since it was her district and impacted her constituents, did Senator Allen or Assemblymember Irwin alert Horvath about the bill?’
Farrell responded, “Yes, she was aware of the bill. I am unclear what information you are looking for to fill in the gaps.”
Lindsery Horvath
CTN responded, “Once it passed on the state level, Pacific Palisades Community Council should have been alerted. It was unkind to make people sit through a nine-hour California Coastal Commission meeting asking for more hearings only to find out it was impossible because of AB 178.”
Farrell responded, “The Supervisor was not responsible for the bill, and I am not familiar with the details of the bill and impacts on hearing rights. I will let my colleagues here answer that question.”
Residents felt more time was needed to discuss the Gladstones project, because they had been left out of hearings over the past eight years. In 2017, L.A. County announced that Wolfgang Puck/Frank Geary and PCH Beach Associates had been selected as the new concessionaire.
A year later in May, the Pacific Palisades Community council was briefed and expressed concerns then about height, footprint, square footage and viewshed protection of the restaurant. Members were told that the required regulatory approval process, including CEQA and CDP approval, would take place.
In June 2019, PCH Beach Associates showed the public a new restaurant model at Caruso’s Community Room (which was different than the one given the California Coastal Commission in 2025). No further community meetings took place.
In 2021, PCH Beach Associates’ Thomas Tellefsen spoke at a PPCC meeting, but no plans, drawings or models were presented. He said he would return to address concerns but never did.
Over the next two years meetings were held by the L.A. County Beach Commission, but PPCC was never informed, and residents were not included. And in September 2022, plans were approved by the County Board of Supervisors, which issued a categorial CEQA exemption.
It was only when the project went before the California Coastal Commission on October 8, did residents learn a trailer bill was passed by the Senate and Assembly. Legislators can make major changes in policy having little or nothing to do with the budget, but it is tacked on the budget bill. Once the law is passed, it immediately takes effect and cannot be challenged in a referendum ballot.
AB 178 is specific for Will Rogers Beach Concession and is about the agreements between the County of Los Angeles and a private entity at the state-owned Will Rogers State Beach. It states that the project will be exempt from approvals by municipal agencies and to be subject only to the approval by the County of Los Angeles and a coastal development permit or amendment to a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission.”
Irwin wrote in an October 3 letter to the Coastal Commission, “the project would an expansive public transportation station serving both the Los Angeles County Metro Bus and the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus systems, resolving existing transit issues and making it easier to access the beach via public transit.” (To view other letters, including one from LA County Metro and LA. Metro Service click here.).
Residents worry that if the area is considered a transit stop, then SB 79 (high density housing) goes into effect, in an area that had evacuation issues during the Palisades Fire.
This model is what participant looked at during the June 2019 presentation.
This is the current rendering.
AB 178 click here.
“Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into contracts with natural persons, corporations, partnerships, and associations for the construction, maintenance, and operation of concessions within units of the state park system. Existing law authorizes the awarding of a concession agreement at Will Rogers State Beach for up to 50 years in length without specific authorization by statute, as provided.”
“This bill would require, notwithstanding any other law or any other agreement, in furtherance of specified concession agreements between the County of Los Angeles and a private entity at the state-owned Will Rogers State Beach, development or renovation of capital improvements, and related public access and recreation improvements, to be exempt from specified permits required by state law or municipal building and zoning codes or from approvals by municipal agencies and to be subject only to the approval by the County of Los Angeles and a coastal development permit or amendment to a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission.”
I would like to know why Lindsay Horvath, Jackie Irwin, and Ben Allan are going against what we, their constituents, want for our community. Their first priority should be what we want, not what their special interests groups want and expect because they filled their Political Action Committees with their money . All three of them should be voted out of office. Palisadians are treated like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed bull___!
California’s corruption level has hit DEFCON 4
The gladstones site get approval by coastal commission but homeowners can’t get the approvals? Makes me wonder.
And Allen will be re elected despite his voting record
“Legislators can make major changes in policy having little or nothing to do with the budget, but it is tacked on the budget bill. Once the law is passed, it immediately takes effect and cannot be challenged in a referendum ballot.”
They always seem to be able to find away to exert their will over the citizens, don’t they? What’s the point of having referendums?