Motel Owners

* As reported in your April 14 article “Motel Owners Protest Nuisance Label,” I attended and spoke at the Bellflower meeting of the Greater Los Angeles Hotel / Motel Assn.

While it is true that the zoning administrator’s finding of nuisance can be appealed to the City Council, I have discovered that all motel owners are presumed guilty well in advance of their ever being afforded any opportunity to respond to allegations against them.

This view is evident from the following statements made by Councilman Mark Ridley Thomas (the newest member of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee) during a Feb. 27 meeting of the City Council: “I would like the item before us appropriately amended to address the question of nuisance uses such as motels . . . to treat them equal to those legitimate establishments; namely, hotels and the like, would be, in my view, an error, particularly when it is clear by any standard of measurement that they are quite different.”

The councilman’s . . . statement reveals his blatant predisposition in matters involving motel owners. Unfortunately, in my experience, this attitude seems to be indicative of most, if not all, of his fellow council members.

JOHN R. DaCORSI

Woodland Hills