Environmental groups decry 'strange' Coastal Commission approval of Las Lomas housing development.

It just doesn’t make sense. That was the response of environmentalists after the California Coastal Commission approved the 54-unit Rancho Los Robles housing project in Las Lomas by a narrow 7-5 vote on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

In the past year, the commission has denied three smaller housing projects in the same North Monterey County coastal region—totaling 39 possible new units—all based on evidence that the groundwater basin below is severely overdrafted.

Attorney Molly Erickson, representing Friends, Artists and Neighbors of Elkhorn Slough (FANS), testified on Wednesday that it’s the very same overdrafted basin below Rancho Los Robles. She urged commissioners to deny the project.

Nevertheless, seven commissioners voted in favor, with little discussion and almost no explanation for their decision.

Michael DeLapa, executive director of Landwatch, says, “There are a lot of things going on with this that seem incredibly strange.”

Mari Kloeppel, a co-chair of FANS, calls the decision “terrible."

“It doesn’t make any sense that they would suddenly reverse and make this decision, which seems to be coming from an emotional place,” she says.

The emotional place came in the form of dozens of Las Lomas residents, many of them farm workers, who pleaded with commissioners to approve the project. 

Wearing white T-shirts that read, “Las Lomas Residents United for a Better Community,” many said that they desperately need the park, library and other community upgrades promised by the developer, Heritage Western Communities.

The Coastal Commission’s Central Coast manager, Kevin Kahn, said those promises are vague, at best. The proposal doesn't include any actual plans or funding.

“To us there is a lot of uncertainty about what is proposed and what would actually be built, if anything,” he told commissioners.

While Coastal Commission staff members support more parkland and services for residents of the small community, Kahn said, “This particular project is not the vehicle [to provide those resources]."

Both Kloeppel and DeLapa say the commission’s approval is a dangerous precedent for the region. They foresee other developers will apply for approval of more projects in the future.

DeLapa says members Landwatch, FANS and others who oppose the development are “putting our heads together,” to determine what steps to take next. He declined to say whether that includes mounting a legal challenge to the decision.