DANA POINT — A high-tech boutique hotel, a restaurant featuring an outdoor dining deck with views of the ocean and youth hostel are coming to this laid-back beach town.

The City Council gave The Wave Resort at the Strand the green light after rejecting an appeal by the Surfrider Foundation to overturn a Planning Commission approval of the project, planned for a 1.4-acre Headlands site along Pacific Coast Highway and Green Lantern.

Commissioners in July found that the project complied with Headlands Development and Conservation Plan. With the council’s unanimous vote on Tuesday, Oct. 3 to reject the appeal, plans for the hotel will move forward.

Construction is expected to start in the next two months and could take up to two years.

Todd Stoutenborough, architect for the project, said he tailored the development specifically for Dana Point and its surrounding neighborhoods.

“Dana Point is coming into its Renaissance seeking to be a resort community,” Stoutenborough said. “It will have wonderful dining near the water and rooms will rent for between $350 and $450 a night. It will be a fun destination full of digital amenities.”

The 35,000-square-foot project includes a 57-room hotel, 4,000 square feet of restaurant space plus 2,851 square feet of outdoor dining, an 800-square-foot visitor center and 52-bed hostel. Parking will be in a subterranean parking structure. The development will also link to trails in the adjacent Headlands nature preserve.

The two-story structure is tucked into a hill, Stoutenborough said. Instead of a concrete wall, neighbors will see a roof full of plants, he said.

Rick Erkeneff, who is chairman of the Surfrider Foundation of South Orange County and spearheaded the appeal, contends that the total project is more dense and goes beyond what the Headlands development plan allows.

“The council failed to read the Headlands Development and Conservation plan,” he said.

But city officials agreed with Stoutenborough, who represents a group of Orange County investors, saying that all requirements by the California Coastal Commission and other regulatory groups have been addressed.

“The project is well designed,” Mayor Debra Lewis said. “I like the boutique appearance and feel, which is in keeping with Dana Point’s intimate, laid-back beach community appeal. It is that very ambiance that draws visitors to our beaches and keeps them coming back. For residents, we can serve our visitors without giving up the cozy beachside town cache that brought us here.”

In 2004, the Coastal Commission certified the project site for commercial use, saying it complies with the city’s local coastal program and provides the development requirements for the Headlands area. A 2007 plan by former owner Steve Sinclair for retail, offices, a restaurant and a youth hostel — that would have required twice the number of cars a hotel does — was approved, Stoutenborough said.

But the downturn in the economy halted the project. The property was purchased by Headlands Investments LLC, an investor group from Orange County that nine months ago brought the plan for the hotel, restaurant and youth hostel to the city, Stoutenborough said. The group determined that retail and office space were not as lucrative as a hotel in the current economy, he said.

Stoutenborough said The Wave Resort at the Strand will have a venue for small functions like wedding and business getaways and the youth hostel will give young people a less expensive way to get an ocean experience.

“Newport Beach had its day,” he said. “Laguna Beach has always been a major resort destination. Now, it’s Dana Point’s turn.”