{"id":454361,"date":"2026-09-05T09:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454361\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T09:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:40:21","slug":"californias-danish-capital-of-america-locked-in-brutal-war-over-gulag-resort-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454361\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s \u2018Danish capital of America\u2019 locked in brutal war over \u2018gulag\u2019 resort plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something\u2019s rotten in the state of Little Denmark. <\/p>\n

The quaint California tourist town of Solvang is in a major snit over a controversial glamping resort proposal <\/a>from a developer that\u2019s in court with the town over another disputed hotel project \u2014\u00a0with new details emerging from inside the battle against what one member of the Scandinavian-ish town\u2019s steering committee decried as a \u201cgulag\u201d in the making.<\/p>\n

The dust-up kicked off in the self-described \u201cDanish Capital of America\u201d<\/a> back on Aug. 20 \u2014\u00a0when the Solvang Design Review Committee, which ensures the town maintains its storybook character, convened to weigh in on a pre-application for Ed St. George\u2019s prospective \u201cglamping\u201d and outdoor transient resort with 31 shiny silver Airstream campers, proposed for a roughly 2.19-acre downtown-adjacent site.<\/p>\n

The storybook town of Solvang is located in Santa Barbara County. Getty Images<\/p>\n

St. George has already stirred up plenty of controversy on the Central Coast in recent years \u2014\u00a0snapping up multiple properties after moving to the area during the pandemic. He\u2019s most notable for stirring the proverbial pot with his purchase of beloved tourist attraction Pea Soup Andersen\u2019s on Highway 101 in Buellton, slated to be torn down in favor of a luxury condominium project.<\/p>\n

Solvang specifically has had considerable beef with St. George, too, which could be one reason why his latest proposal was met with such particular ire \u2014\u00a0his downtown hotel project, the 1704 Mission Hotel and Cottages, was slapped with a stop work order over desired design changes, leading St. George to file a lawsuit against the city, SFGATE reported<\/a> earlier.<\/p>\n

A review of a recording of the meeting revealed that much of the anger centered around a bizarre \u201clookout tower\u201d planned for the glamping resort site \u2014\u00a0which would potentially allow transient guests to spy on the surrounding neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tower, you could call it Jellystone Park, or you could call it a gulag,\u201d Committee member Melissa Bates spat. \u201cEither way, it\u2019s gotta go.\u201d<\/p>\n

An artist\u2019s concept shows the proposed tower for a glamping resort in Solvang. Obtained by the CA Post<\/p>\n

Downtown along Alisal Road in Solvang, California. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The site also happens to fall within the city\u2019s Mission Design District, where all development is expected to incorporate Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, to compliment the city\u2019s historic Old Mission Santa Ines. <\/p>\n

City staff flatly directed St. George\u2019s team to do better on the compliance front \u2014\u00a0while residents lined up in the meeting to share their own concerns.<\/p>\n

Resident Susan Belloni questioned exactly how the distinctly mid-century campers belonged within the district. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see that 31 mid-century design shiny aluminum Airstream trailers have anything in common with Spanish Colonial Revival architecture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it looks like a trailer park and it gleams like a trailer park, in spite of the categorization of a lodging, it\u2019s a trailer park,\u201d Dennis Beebe said during public comment at the meeting \u2014\u00a0a comment that made headlines in the immediate aftermath of the Danish skirmish.<\/p>\n

The plan isn\u2019t dead, according to officials \u2014\u00a0just not ready for check-in. The developer was told to revise the plans and return for a second pre-application review \u2014 an unusual additional step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something\u2019s rotten in the state of Little Denmark. The quaint California tourist town of Solvang is in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4731,971,5875,140166],"class_list":["post-454361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-hotels","tag-lifestyle","tag-santa-barbara","tag-trailers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}