The East Palo Alto City Council agreed in closed session Tuesday night to file a lawsuit against the Four Seasons Hotel and its developer, LDW Resorts, as a way to resolve a dispute between the hotel and the city.

The city had agreed, years ago, to allow the hotel to forgo paying the city’s 12 percent hotel occupancy tax for three and half years or a maximum of $8.4 million providing the hotel opened by November, 2005. The hotel opened Feb. 1, 2006.

Because the hotel did not open by the stated deadline, the city regards the earlier agreement as void, City Attorney Michael Lawson said.

The Four Seasons is a luxury, 200-room hotel located next to Highway 101 on the west side of the freeway.

The city had reached the earlier agreement with the hotel and the hotel’s developer as an inducement to the development, which the city regards as a key portion of its future because of the 12 percent tax on occupancy. The price of the rooms starts at $325 a night during the week and $225 a night on weekends.

--Don Kazak, Palo Alto Weekly staff writer