County Planning Commission approves Pebble Beach affordable housing project.

They chose the forest instead of the trees. 

The Monterey County Planning Commission, with a 6-0 vote, approved a 24-unit affordable housing project in Pebble Beach at its meeting this afternoon, following a spirited two hours of public comment by a good number of those who both supported the project, and those who were against it. 

Commissioner Keith Vandevere was absent, and commissioners Ana Ambriz, Jose Mendez and Amy Roberts left before the vote, at 4:20pm, 4:04pm and 3:15pm respectively. 

The proposed project came as a result of Pebble Beach Company's Del Monte Forest Plan, which was approved by both the California Coastal Commission and the County Board of Supervisors in 2012.

In a Coastal Commission press release from that time, the compromise was described as "historic."

That compromise was this: After the Coastal Commission denied Pebble Beach Company's attempt to build another golf course on its property in 2007, the two parties met, and ultimately, the commission endorsed a plan that allowed the company to build 100 new hotel rooms and 90 new homes, while preserving 635 acres of "pristine" Monterey pine forest.

As part of the county's approval of that plan, Pebble Beach Company was required to build at least 18 units within the county planning area, and to put $5 million in escrow until that happened.

Failure to succeed in building the project would mean the county gets that $5 million, plus a $2 million fine.

The 13-acre project site is located on S.F.B. Morse Drive, in a forest adjacent to the "boot" of Pacific Grove—a small neighborhood that juts out into Pebble Beach.

The project was proposed in 2013, and its environmental impact report found that the only impacts that couldn't be mitigated were traffic and water. 

County staff, however, told the commission that Pebble Beach Company has committed millions of dollars the the Holman roundabout currently in the works, and that it has the necessary water rights to move forward. 

Most of those who spoke out against the project fixated on a single aspect: trees. The project calls for the removal of 725 trees—135 Monterey pine and 590 live oak.

But as those who have walked through that forest would know, it is not exactly virgin habitat.

That point was brought home by Joyce Stevens, a local conservationist who supports the project, and who is dedicated to preserving Monterey pines. So dedicated, in fact, the Monterey Peninsula Regional Parks District named a preserve after her in 2014—the Joyce Stevens Monterey Pine Forest Preserve, adjacent to the north of Jacks Peak.

"About a year ago, I visited the forest, and what I saw was a very degraded Monterey pine forest habitat," she said. "What I did see, though, was a lot of dog waste, beer bottles, trash and bike jumps.

"It’s no wonder a lot of the neighbors don’t want anything changed, they have a free playground," she added.

More than any other speaker, she was the most convincing—a certified tree hugger, approving of a project to cut down trees. 

The elephant in the room was affordable housing, and the undeniable need for more of it in the county, especially in unafforable places like Pebble Beach, where many employees commute from afar.

Sensing this, perhaps, those opposed to the project stuck mostly to the trees, but in the end the Planning Commission was unanimous: The county was requiring the company to build the housing, the company has a plan to do it—in arguably the best possible location—so there seemed to be little reason for the Planning Commission to deny the plan. 

The decision could very well be appealed to the Board of Supervisors, who would then have final say.