P.G. City Council eyes finish line in long race to complete coastal plan.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

That was Pacific Grove City Councilmember Bill Peake’s accurate description of the city’s two-and-a-half-year quest to create a Local Coastal Program in partnership with the California Coastal Commission.

The prize awaiting the city at the finish line: the ability to make decisions over the development of properties that sit in the coastal zone—at least 25 percent of the city—saving time and money for landowners who won’t have to go through both city and coastal commission approvals once the program is approved.

It could also mean more money in city coffers to pay for coastal protection through metered parking, most likely along Ocean View Boulevard near Lover’s Point.

The marathon continued at the Wednesday night, March 1, council meeting, when Peake and the rest of the seven-member council got the first crack in a public hearing to review the oversized document that includes a 120-page land use plan and a 95-page implementation plan.

The council spent more than four hours listening to about 20 speakers and discussing the program’s features before continuing the public hearing to its April 5 meeting, but not without making some key decisions first using straw votes, like unanimously agreeing to paid parking.

“We have been fortunate that we are able to offer free parking, we provide the best coastal access in the state by not charging for our parking,” said Mark Brodeur, director of community and economic development. “However, one of the things that became very clear to the Planning Commission about half way through the planning process was that unless this city was given a big bag of money, we have a lot of work to do on this coast to preserve what we have.”

He proposed using the latest technology with strategically placed kiosks for use with credit cards, as opposed to single parking meters lining the street.

Council members also unanimously agreed to a plan to monitor sea level rise in coming years, and to make plans for armoring sections of the coast to protect city’s coastal trail, as well as expensive infrastructure, such as sewage and water pipes embedded in Ocean View Boulevard.

Exactly how the coast will be armored is yet to be determined by an update of Pacific Grove’s Coastal Parks Plan, which is expected to happen within the next three years.

The council also sided with numerous residents who asked for relief from a much stricter definition by coastal commission staff definitions of what constitutes development versus redevelopment.

Coastal commission staff define redevelopment as an alteration of 50 percent or more of major structural components, including all walls, floors, roof structure and foundation—additions and alterations that lead to more than a 50 percent increase in floor area—and, changes to floor area and major structural components measured cumulatively since the city’s last land use plan took effect in 1989.

The council instead agreed with its own staff recommendations to only include exterior walls and roof structure in any calculations, and to not measure changes cumulatively since 1989.

The council also tried to accommodate requests from residents in the Asilomar Dunes area for some more privacy and safety of children and pets, by agreeing to fences to enclose yards behind the homes. The yards could be up to 1,000 square feet, or 5 percent of the property, whichever is greater.

Also affecting the dunes area, the council parted with longstanding Coastal Commission policy to not allow subdivisions of some of the large lots located there. Pacific Grove staff identified six lots that could be subdivided, but only if the portion of the lot sold or donated by a homeowner goes to organizations or individuals that will preserve the environmentally-sensitive habitat.

Still to come at the April 5 meeting is considering how to implement the local coastal program, which includes changes to zoning for the American Tin Cannery and other areas of the city where hotels are located, and to the Sunset Service Commercial District.

Several residents at the meeting objected to a plan to increase the floor to area ratio of any future hotel that will replace the American Tin Cannery.

Brodeur told the council he believes the current ratio of 2.0 is too restrictive, creating a situation where the hotel would appear flat, rising up for two stories. He said the building would have more “movement” if it could be stepped back, for up to three total stories. He said a 2.4 ratio would be more appropriate, but wants the zoning to reflect a 3.0 ratio.

Once the council approves the local coastal program the next leg of the marathon gets underway when the plan is sent to the Coastal Commission for consideration later this year.