Save Westwood Village A B u s i n e s s - C o m m u n i t y A l l i a n c e D e d i c a t e d t o Q u a li t y R e v i t a l i z a t io n
No evidence in the record supports the conclusion that the project is financially viable or complies with federal and state tax laws and UC policies. Most academic conferences are held when universities are not in session: summer. Given the seasonal availability of academics to travel, is there enough academic conference business to sustain a hotel that assumes two-thirds of its annual room nights will be for this category of guest? Since academics are traditionally free to travel and attend conferences in the summer, UCLA has ample accommodations in the residence halls and conference centers on campus. How many conferences are scheduled during the summer versus the rest of the year on a national basis? 7.
How will the UCLA Luskin Hotel impact Westwood Village businesses? For Westwood Village, with a 30 to 40 percent retail vacancy rate, removing guests from Westwood hotels is a job and revenue killer. This creates indirect physical impacts in Westwood Village that must be analyzed. DEIR p. 1-5 lists “Areas of Controversy” that the DEIR does not address, though Scoping comments requested analysis of these impacts. CEQA compliance dictates an objective analysis of economic and social impacts if they will lead to indirect physical impacts. Massive losses of hotel revenue means a decline in the economy of Westwood Village. These economic impacts include compliance with UC BUS-72, unfair business practices of not paying city transient occupancy tax, economic blight and urban decay, financial implications of the loss of 754 parking spaces, and compliance with UBIT. Since UC Davis had to conduct an urban decay analysis for its hotel expansion last year, so does UCLA. There is evidence in the record that just one unit of UCLA (Extension) presently spends over a million dollars a year hosting visitors who would no longer be in the Village. This is a major loss to the local economy, which already has a huge retail vacancy rate between 30 and 40 percent. UNFAIR COMPETITION: NO BED TAX: OPEN TO THE PUBLIC According to UCLA’s Conference Services website, UCLA’s hospitality empire is in direct competition with local hotels and restaurants for events such as weddings and special events. This has nothing to do with the exempt purpose of the University of California: teaching, research and public service. And it brags on its various website that its hotel rooms are not subject to the 15.5 percent local transient occupancy (bed) tax: A.
UCLA Guest House: “comfortable rooms at competitive prices and no local occupancy tax!”
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