IMAGE of the proposed Nickelodeon hotel resort (Oxford Economics).

By Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune

The calling of a special election to decide the fate of a proposal to build a 500-room, 23-story Nickelodeon-themed hotel on Harbor Boulevard was approved by the Garden Grove City Council on Tuesday night.

Toward the end of a meeting that dragged on for almost six hours, six council members – including Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein – voted in favor of scheduling a special election on June 8, 2027 and appropriating $1 million to cover the cost.

Councilmember Joe DoVinh, saying he was “conflicted” and didn’t want to pass on the $1 million to the new council to be elected in November, recused himself.

The setting of an election comes because a petition drive to call for a referendum on the council-approved ordinance for the zoning for the hotel received enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

That petition drive was organized by Unite Here, a hotel workers union.

“The city had a vision for the Harbor corridor,” said Councilmember /Mayor Pro Tem George Brietigam. He conceded that he had initially been against the plan to create a hotel district along Harbor, but now is a supporter.

“The hotels have saved this community,” he said. “I was staunchly opposed. Man, was I wrong.”
He added that he believed that voters would back the project, which could bring millions in new tax revenue into city coffers. “I don’t think our community will let us down.”

Earlier in the meeting, the council heard a report by the Oxford Economics firm about the potential impact of another petition drive, calling for higher wages for hotel workers and a cap on their workload.

The effect, the report indicated, would be to increase the hotel’s operating costs, which could mean less business for them and less transient occupancy tax (“bed tax”) paid to the city.