W. Hollywood to Allow Apartment Conversions : Planning: Council says hotelier can convert his buildings to hotels if he pays $4.9 million over 20 years.

After softening a series of strict conditions imposed by a city commission, the West Hollywood City Council voted Monday to allow hotelier Severyn Ashkenazy to proceed with a plan to convert several apartment buildings to hotels in exchange for $4.9 million paid to the city over the next 20 years.

Although city officials said Ashkenazy is likely to accept the compromise agreement in the long-running dispute, not everybody was happy to see the restrictions loosened.

“I think the City Council thinks with a happy, warm feeling that they went along with the Planning Commission. Unfortunately, they did not go along with the spirit of the whole thing the Planning Commission had done,” said Jeanne Dobrin, an opponent of the hotel agreements.

Mayor Abbe Land said the restrictions will protect the surrounding neighborhoods.

“We worked together very hard to try and address the many concerns we heard. We did try and incorporate the planning commission recommendations,” Land said.

The agreement reached between the city and financially troubled Ashkenazy Enterprises Inc. last December would allow the company to convert the buildings to hotels in exchange for the payments, including $1.2 million in delinquent hotel occupancy taxes and penalties.

In June and July, the city Planning Commission substantially restricted the proposed conversions after irate neighbors denounced the agreements as a sellout by the city and complained that the hotels would be an unwanted commercial intrusion into residential neighborhoods.

The Planning Commission denied liquor permits to the proposed hotels, imposed restrictions on parking, delivery traffic, noise, and the hours and types of parties that would be allowed at the hotels. The commission also denied plans to add on to Ashkenazy’s Bel Age hotel.

On Monday, the council overturned the commission’s severe restrictions, allowing a liquor permit at one site and partial liquor permits at two others. Among the new conditions, the council agreed to limit the number of people allowed at hotel parties to 50, make it illegal for tour buses to park with engines running at the hotels and mandated that there be adequate free parking for hotel guests.

Councilman Paul Koretz, the only member to consistently oppose the plans Monday, criticized the settlement.

“I’m not completely satisfied. While Ashkenazy is not the ogre many have portrayed him as, he has not been a particularly good neighbor,” Koretz said. “The council obviously chose to give him his settlement. . . . It worked to Ashkenazy’s convenience.”

Dobrin, who led an estimated 40 speakers opposed to the hotel plan at Monday’s public hearing, said public pressure was not wholly unsuccessful, however.

“We did win a lot of points,” Dobrin said. She said opponents may consider future steps but had not yet made any decisions.