Plans to construct a hotel tower in Downtown's Historic Core face an important test this week, when the Central Los Angeles Area Planning Commission is scheduled to consider an appeal of the proposed development. 

Since 2015, Lizard Capital has pursued the development of a 170-room hotel at 633 S. Spring Street.  The project, which is being designed by asap/adam sokol architecture practice pllc, would replace a slim surface parking lot with a 28-story, 341-foot-tall building featuring nearly 7,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space, a conference facility, a rooftop bar, and 63 parking spaces in at three-level automated basement garage.

In May 2018, the City of Los Angeles' Zoning Administrator certified the project's environmental impact report and other requested entitlements.  This decision has since been appealed by a representative of UNITE HERE Local 11, a labor union which represents hotel workers.

The appeal points to several alleged flaws in the project's environmental impact report, including a lack of analysis of the potential impact of the proposed tower on surrounding historic buildings along Spring Street.  The appellant also argues that the environmental study did not look into noise that would occur during the construction period, and that the hotel's impact on traffic congestion should have been analyzed using the vehicle miles traveled metric.

A staff report responds to the appeal by arguing that the appellant fails to demonstrate any errors in the project's approval, and recommends that the Area Planning Commission uphold the existing approvals.

The proposed development is one of a number of hotels on the horizon in the Historic Core, including a Cambria Hotel now under construction across from Spring Street Park, and a proposed CitizenM that is slated to replace a parking lot on 4th Street.