By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
Pacific Palisades Community Council hosted a special meeting on Thursday evening, October 30, focused on the Gladstones site redevelopment project, which included a presentation by the concessionaire/developer, Tom Tellefsen of PCH Beach Associates.
Also present were representatives from the County of Los Angeles, including Beaches & Harbors and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s office.
“The County of Los Angeles, in partnership with California State Parks and PCH Beach Associates, whose partners are Wolfgang Puck and Tom Tellefsen, is moving forward with a redevelopment of the Gladstones site at Will Rogers State Beach,” according to a statement on Beaches & Harbors’ website. “The existing building will be removed and replaced with a new two-story restaurant designed by architect Frank Gehry and operated by Chef Puck.”
California Coastal Commission approved a Coastal Development Permit for the project, which has been in the works since 2018, on October 8. PPCC hosted the special meeting on October 30, citing hearing from “many community members” who were concerned about the process of the project, including it being approved by CCC “without prior community input or sufficient advance notice.”
The project includes a 2,700-square-foot public ocean-view deck with 100 seats and two restrooms, a “widened and lengthened segment” of the Coastal Trail, a snack bar and gift shop, and turnaround and drop-off area to accommodate existing bus lines, designed for “improving safety and access without creating a new transit hub.”
“It’s been a long haul—as you’re all aware—eight years as far as for when we started down this road,” Tellefsen said. “During that time, we’ve had tremendous start and stops, but finally are at a point where we can get moving forward.”
Tellefsen compared the project’s footprint to what currently exists on the site. As proposed, the restaurant will have 450 seats, compared to the 707 seats at Gladstones today. The current restaurant footprint of Gladstones, including the building and patio/deck, is 19,991 square feet, which, in the current project design, will be 9,601 square feet for the building area and 1,850 square feet for a patio/deck.
The current project design has a two-story building, with the first floor at 11,501 square feet and the second floor at 5,741 square feet for a total of 17,242 square feet. The second floor, Tellefsen described, would be used for things like private events.
“We basically have said, the three of us, since the beginning, that we needed to replace an existing memory with a new memory,” Tellefsen described. “There’s tremendous affection for Gladstones, we understand that. We want to honor that, but in doing so, we want to present something new and special.”
Gladstones has 212 total parking spaces, which is a ratio of 3.33 restaurant seats per parking space, with the current project design having 141 total parking spaces, which is 3.19 restaurant seats per space. There will also be electric vehicle spaces, a separate valet drop off and pickup area, and staff parking.
One of the concerns Tellefsen addressed was the subject of AB 178. A trailer bill was added to the budget bill in 2024, PPCC At-Large Representative Chris Spitz explained, which “basically excludes this project, and this project alone,” from city and local regulations and laws, apart from county and CCC approval. Tellefsen said that the site is owned by the State of California, which means the project is owned by the state.
“As a result of that, even though it’s in the city of Los Angeles, because of the concept of sovereign immunity, the city does not have any jurisdiction, as far as the project is concerned,” Tellefsen explained.
Spitz asked who brought the trailer bill to the governor’s office, which, in turn, brought it to the legislature. Tellefsen responded that the inquiry has been made at the state level, and that his understanding was “responses may be coming as far as from the state.”
Tellefsen spoke on the Big Blue Bus and Metro of a turnaround on the site. When the request for proposal was issued, Tellefsen explained, it included a bus turnaround and stop, and a resting place for drivers on site, a request he said came from the community.
“We have no intent of enabling that to trigger SB 79,” Tellefsen said. “We’ve had it clarified from attorneys, we’ve had it clarified from the state itself, from different parties … that this is merely a replacement of an existing bus turnaround and an existing bus stop with a new bus turnaround that’s been … in play for eight years now.”
Pacific Palisades Residents Association President Jessica Rogers spoke during the question and answer portion of the meeting, citing residents who are “dealing with a major disaster” and now “construction at Gladstones at the same time,” without having an “opportunity to have any say in the process.”
“This is what’s so sad about this,” Rogers said. “We need positive buildings. Wolfgang was so excited, he gave the best speech ever at the Coastal Commission. And sadly, I was so hurt by the fact that you would not give us a voice that I could not participate in that joy. So here we are, unable to participate in your joy, because we’re trying to make sure that we’re looking for the greatest benefit of our community and not just the benefit of your establishment.”
Tellefsen said he “didn’t seek to go around any process,” and that he and Wolfgang responded to the request for proposal with a “very exciting project.”
“As far as the process is concerned … whatever you want to think about AB 178, it did nothing more than clarify what is the law,” Tellefsen said.
Following the Palisades fire, Tellefsen, a resident of the Palisades, has been living outside of the community while his house is redone.
“I greatly appreciate what you are all going through, and going through it myself and understand it,” Tellefsen said.
According to Tellefsen’s presentation during the October 30 PPCC meeting, the project is scheduled to start construction by mid 2026 and commence operations in early 2028.
“I hear you on everything you’re saying,” Tellefsen said toward the end of the meeting. “ … I would feel differently on this call if, basically, I saw that there was some flaw in the project design that wasn’t going to work, and I don’t see that. I instead see just the opposite. I see that we tried to address everything that could be of concern to the community in such a way that this is going to be an inviting place for you all.”
A link to the presentation and a recording of the meeting are available at pacpalicc.org.
