Pacific Grove City Council votes to vacate street so American Tin Cannery luxury resort can move forward.

The Pacific Grove City Council voted 7-0 on Wednesday, Oct. 16 to vacate Sloat Avenue and sell it to landowner Foursome Development for $1.9 million, a crucial step toward the construction of a 222-unit luxury hotel where the American Tin Cannery currently sits along Ocean View Avenue at the gateway to the city.

The vote came after opposition from some residents who argued that Sloat Avenue would be a critical escape route in the rare instance of a tsunami or other disaster, among other arguments for why the street was still necessary to the city, or why the city hadn't followed proper procedures to vacate.

Their arguments were rebutted point by point by City Attorney Brian Pierik and Community Development Director Karen Vaughn. Using maps of the city's road system, Vaughn said the road that runs behind the ATC between Dewey and Eardley avenues was a minor street that would not be impacted during a tsunami, nor necessary for escape.

Ahead of the regular council meeting, councilmembers met in closed session to discuss a potential lawsuit, should they vote to vacate Sloat.

One of the opponents to the ATC hotel, Anthony Ciani, had already filed one lawsuit against the city when the council approved the project in January 2022. The lawsuit was dropped after the California Coastal Commission approved the project on appeal in April.

A number of residents who are supporters of the hotel urged the council to not let the fear of legal action stop them, including former mayor Bill Kampe, who in 2016 led the effort to pass a measure to rezone the underperforming outlet mall which was originally a tin can factory for Cannery Row. Measure X passed with nearly 59 percent of the vote. 

Supporters argued that the city would greatly benefit by replacing the aging and decaying ATC at the gateway to the city with a new hotel that would include shops, a restaurant and other amenities, bringing sales and transient occupancy taxes into the city.

Councilmember Luke Coletti, who was the lone "no" vote against the hotel in 2022—as well as a critical voice during the April Coastal Commission meeting due to concerns over the cease-and-desist order regarding pumping water from the Carmel River to the Monterey Peninsula—voted on Wednesday in favor of vacating Sloat.

Coletti thanked opponents to the hotel plans because, he said, it resulted in a better project after going through the Coastal Commission process.

The revised project includes a water use cap, increased public access, lower-cost rooms and increased monitoring of the harbor seal population. The developer of the hotel, Comstock Development, agreed to decrease the size of the resort by 85,000 square feet. (Property owner Foursome Development is leasing the land to Comstock.)

Comstock also agreed as part of the Sloat Avenue deal to contribute $50,000 toward bringing back the Monterey-Salinas Transportation trolley to Pacific Grove.

Currently the trolley, which operates seasonally, only travels between the downtown Monterey parking garage and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is kitty-corner to the ATC. At one time the trolley took visitors all the way through P.G. to Asilomar and back.

The agreement with the developer includes the right to buy back the road, should the project not be constructed within four years of a building permit being issued.