More than a year after Solvang red-tagged his unfinished hotel, Ed St. George said he has no intention of raising a white flag over the dormant development.
“We’re already 90 percent done. If we were 40 percent done, I would be willing to tear it down. But we are literally 90 percent done,” the developer told the Sun. “The interiors are painted. The electrical’s in. I’ve spent close to $2 million on this.”
Within eyeshot of locals and tourists who traverse the intersection of Mission Drive and Alisal Road, St. George’s row of thatched-roofed cottage suites—surrounded by fencing but unblocked from public view—looks more like an abandoned fairy-tale village than an idle construction site.
Greenlit for construction in late 2024, the project stalled in August 2025 when a Solvang city staff inspection ended with a stop work order. City officials said the paint color and facade deviated from previously approved plans.
That October, St. George asked the City Council to amend his project permit to justify the changes and continue construction. The council rejected his request with a 4-1 vote. Mayor David Brown dissented.
The following month, St. George sued the city for construction delay damages, alleging that any appeal of the stop work order outside of court would be pointless.
The yearlong lawsuit remained active as of late September—when his lawyer told the Sun he expects a settlement agreement soon.
“The only way we would settle is if he’s then able to resume and complete this project that is near and dear to his heart,” St. George’s attorney, Robert Forouzandeh, said. “I’m hoping that we’re going to have this thing wrapped up here pretty quickly.”
Solvang has argued for the case to be thrown out because St. George didn’t exhaust the “administrative remedies” at his disposal to resolve the dispute.
“He should have appealed [the stop work order] by submitting written notice to the City Council within 10 days of receipt of the order,” Zoe Liebeskind, attorney for Solvang, stated in court documents. “Petitioner failed to do so, … and has not sufficiently [pleaded] any valid excuse for that failure.”
However, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge James F. Rigali overruled Solvang’s petition to dismiss the case on those grounds.
“If there is a method within a government agency’s own bureaucracy to appeal something, you’re required to do that before resorting to the courts, [with] a couple exceptions. One of them is the futility argument,” Forouzandeh told the Sun. “If it’s futile to go through the appeal, then you don’t have to, … because that’s just a waste of time. That’s what we argued.”
Rigali concluded that St. George’s argument was sufficient to withstand Solvang’s requested demurrer.
“Whether petitioner will be able to demonstrate this at trial is an entirely different matter,” the judge wrote in his ruling. “Administrative review to challenge a decision made earlier by the final decision-maker where the decision-maker will not be called upon to consider different evidence on the ultimate issue is truly a waste of time.”
In 10 years of serving as St. George’s attorney, Forouzandeh said the civil suit against Solvang marks his first time suing a municipality on the developer’s behalf.
“He’s never had a situation like this, and I haven’t had a situation like this with my other clients,” Forouzandeh said. “I’ve never seen a red tag handed out like Halloween candy the way it was in this case.
“If you think there’s material deviations and then you red-tag me, I can’t fix those material deviations,” Forouzandeh continued. “Even if it’s true, and I’m not conceding that it’s true, but at least give [us] the opportunity to go fix it. Saying you materially deviated from the plans and then you can’t touch it to fix it, what am I supposed to do?”
The suit names Solvang Community Development Director Rafael Castillo as one of two defendants, alongside the city itself. Castillo issued the stop work order last summer.
In early 2026, Castillo told the Sun he can’t comment on the litigation while it’s pending.
Prior to the suit in late 2025, Castillo told the City Council that staff warned St. George about the reported deviations two months ahead of the red-tagging.
In St. George’s view, the stop work order was less about upholding city design standards than meeting “politically motivated” ends.
His complaint alleges that during active construction of the hotel, the Solvang Trolley—owned by Councilmember Claudia Orona’s family—would stop in front of the site along its route and the tour guide would make “derogatory” comments about the project and how “ugly” it is.
Solvang referred to that claim in court documents as part of “a vague conspiracy theory.”
While Orona is the only council member named in the nine-page complaint, St. George said he believes he’s been singled out for “bizarre” reasons by several city officials, including members of Solvang’s Design Review Committee.
In late August, the committee reviewed St. George’s conceptual plans for a separate project: a glamping-style hotel property with individual Airstream trailers for patrons to rent.
At one point during the meeting, committee member Jennifer Johnson began her comments with: “First and foremost, I do not believe in Airstreams. I do not like Airstreams. … I don’t know who chose that, because they’re … ridiculous.”
St. George described this hearing as an example of city officials “just poking me in the eye to get a reaction.”
“It’s like every one of them wants to design the project as they would design it themselves personally, as they would love to personally see it—not: ‘Is this going to be something that the community would benefit from?’” St. George said. “They’re like emotional children. … The city hasn’t shown anything other than the fact that they’re highly emotional people.
“I’ve proposed five different hotel projects for that parcel, and all five have been flatly rejected,” he added. “Now we’re going to be proposing high-density housing [instead], which the city, in my opinion, doesn’t need.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in October 1 – October 8, 2026.
