Monterey Bay Shores “eco-resort” finds friends in strange places.

The Monterey Bay Shores “eco-resort,” in the works since the 1990s, exists only on paper, in the hearing rooms of the California Coastal Commission and in court. The proposed project’s footprint encompasses 39 acres of Sand City oceanfront. Developer Addi Ben “Ed” Ghandour proposes to build 184 hotel rooms, an equal number of condominium units, a conference center, restaurants, underground parking and amenities like a pool and spa.

In 2013, he also proposed to place “no trespassing” signs on the property, some warning people that trespassers will be prosecuted, and other signs warned people to keep off the beach. The Coastal Commission, which has twice rejected the proposal by citing issues of coastal erosion and sea-level rise said the signs violated the right of the public to access the beach, a right preserved by the California Coastal Act. Ghandour said the property is his alone through a land grant and that beach access is excluded from the public trust doctrine.

That brings us mostly present. The courts last May ordered the Coastal Commission to reconsider the project; the commission appealed the decision, and that appeal is still pending. Team Ghandour has come up with an alternative plan the commission might find acceptable and that will render the litigation moot.

The Coastal Commission is going forward with a public hearing set to begin April 9 in Santa Barbara. The commission will hear testimony from the public and discuss and debate. They will then talk to Ghandour, and if they can come to an agreement, commission staff will alert the court and the court can apparently opt to stay the civil case. There may even be a decision allowing the project to go forward by April 10.

In the background, activists and lobbyists are redrawing the battle lines over Monterey Bay Shores. At the center, almost beyond the issues of erosion and sea-level rise, is a small shorebird known as the western snowy plover (official status “threatened” according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). One of the plover habitats is smack dab in the middle of Ghandour’s eco-resort.

Big Sur activist Jack Ellwanger, who runs the Pelican Network (he describes it as an informal network of people who are about living with nature) last week sent an unusual message to his email list: Support Monterey Bay Shores.

“This project is going to take 40 acres of badly destroyed, priceless habitat dune and seascape destroyed by mining and it’s going to restore it,” Ellwanger tells me this week. “It will become an ecological haven.”

How that will happen remains to be seen, other activists say. Ghandour has enlisted Paul Kephart of the Monterey-based firm Rana Creek. Kephart is a pioneer in “living architecture,” whose work includes the famed living roof of the Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco. Kephart, Ellwanger wrote, will arrange logistics for supporters to get to the meeting.

“The organic architecture of Paul Kephart is the hallmark of the project,” Ellwanger adds.

Maybe so, and maybe true. Kephart certainly doesn’t do ugly. But Ellwanger’s sudden activism over Monterey Bay Shores has conservation groups like the Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club and the Audubon Society scratching their heads.

“It’s a great project in a dumb location,” says Warner Chabot, an environmental policy consultant working for Surfrider.

A main point of contention is if the commission will allow Ghandour to push forward with a self-generated, toothless Habitat Protection Plan to protect plover habitat, or require him to create an enforceable Habitat Conservation Plan requiring a permit from Fish & Wildlife.

“No serious plover conservation biologist thinks a Habitat Protection Plan will offset the harm to the species,” says Blake Matheson, president of the Monterey Audubon Society.

“They talk about the project helping the plover, but they haven’t explained how you remove half the site for a building, add in 1,000 people and take the remaining half to third for sand dunes and trails,” Chabot says. “It defies the laws of nature.”

There’s still time to comment to the Coastal Commission. Write them at montereybayshoresresort@coastal.ca.gov.

MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com