91ÊÓƵ

An appeal intended to block development of the headquarters hotel near the Oregon Convention Center is now headed to Oregon’s highest court.

The Oregon Supreme Court will hear a challenge of Metro’s proposal for a 600-room Hyatt Regency hotel. Of the $212 million project cost, $60 million would come from a transient lodging tax levied by Multnomah County, the city of Portland and Metro. A coalition of hotel owners, led by Gordon Sondland of Provenance Hotels, last year sued the county to halt the project, saying voters should decide how that tax money should be spent.

Multnomah County claimed in court that its decision to reallocate lodging tax dollars was an administrative decision, and not a legislative one.

The suit was denied by the Multnomah Circuit Court in 2014, and an appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals was turned down earlier this year.

The case will go before the Supreme Court on March 7, 2016, at 10:30 a.m., at Lewis and Clark Law School.

A separate case related to the hotel project is before the Oregon Court of Appeals. In it, justices will determine whether Metro should have held a referendum (whereas the case now before the Supreme Court asks whether Multnomah County should have held one).The appellate court heard arguments several weeks ago, but has not issued an opinion yet.