Ontario council upholds staff recommendations on contested hotel plan after CEQA appeal; financing and DDA approvals follow

Ontario City Council voted on Jan. 20 to adopt staff recommendations responding to an appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of a proposed five-story, 226-room hotel (file PDEV25007) and then approved related environmental and financing actions that advance the project.

Planning staff described the site as a 3.4-acre parcel on Champions Avenue within the Ontario Sports/Convention Center-support commercial zoning district and said the development plan would include a five-story hotel with 226 rooms and about 25,000 square feet of commercial space. Staff summarized four grounds of appeal submitted by Unite Here Local 11 and recommended denying two claims (related to consideration of a reinstated development agreement and the technical adequacy of the EIR addendum) while granting two others (procedural questions about whether a conditional-use permit was required and whether the city had taken premature steps toward approval); staff asked the council to set aside the Planning Commission's adoption of the EIR addendum and the development plan pending council action.

Jordan Sisson, land-use counsel for the appellants, argued the city's February 2025 land sale and subsequent steps risked post-approval environmental review in violation of CEQA and the Surplus Land Act. "A fundamental purpose of an EIR is to provide decision makers with information that can be used in deciding whether to approve a proposed project, not to inform them of environmental effects of projects that they have already approved," Sisson told the council, urging reconsideration and full compliance before approvals proceed.

Planning staff and the city manager acknowledged there was some procedural confusion in the record but said staff's redlined changes, environmental analysis and the amended and restated disposition and development agreement were intended to address CEQA compliance and the project's review path. "This item does remove the language regarding the sale of the property that previously occurred, and the amended and restated DDA does include all of the desired development milestones for the project consistent with the updated CEQA review," the city manager said.

Councilmember Bowman moved to adopt staff's recommendation; the motion was seconded and passed 5-0, which implemented staff's direction on the appeal and set aside the Planning Commission's prior action consistent with that recommendation. The council then considered related items: a resolution authorizing up to $100 million in California Communities Development Authority revenue bonds for the hotel project (the bond resolution passed with one abstention/recusal recorded for Councilmember Macias), approval of the EIR addendum and amended and restated DDA (passed 5-0), and a resolution finding the Ontario Airport Hotel and Conference Centre project serves the public interest and authorizing environmental findings and filing of a Notice of Determination (approved with the same recusal noted).

The meeting record shows the appeal is also the subject of active litigation cited by the appellants; council action tonight implements staff's recommended path for the project while the underlying court matter proceeds. The council additionally adopted routine items earlier in the meeting, including adoption of the 2024 International Fire Code and the 2025 California Building and Fire Codes and a resolution setting fees for the Ontario Net Fiber optics network.

What happens next: the council authorized staff to file required environmental notices and proceed with the amended and restated DDA and financing steps; the transcript notes ongoing litigation and indicates the city will proceed with the process described in the staff report.