Progress is coming to Carmel, much to the disappointment of the leader of the Carmel Preservation Association, Neal Kruse. He appealed the approval by the Carmel Planning Commission in April of a new luxury hotel to replace the 67-year-old Hofsas House. On Tuesday, July 9, the City Council denied the appeal.
It was Kruse who told the Planning Commission in April: "We do not want progress. We do not want the most modern-looking hotels, and that is why we're still the place that everybody wants to come to."
On July 9 he warned the proposed Carmel Legacy Hotel would lead to a "complete transformation of the village."
Councilmember Karen Ferlito called the current Hofsas House "a labyrinth" and "not fixable." She said luxury hotels under construction in other cities on the Peninsula could lure visitors away, which would mean they would drive into Carmel for the day. That would mean the city would lose out on valuable transient occupancy tax revenue.
The new Carmel Legacy Hotel—which will continue to be run by the same family that's run Hofsas House since it was built in 1957—will bring much needed access under the Americans with Disabilities Act, something Carmel's older hotels are missing, Councilmember Bobby Richards said.
Councilmember Jeff Baron argued Kruse didn't make the case for why the Carmel Planning Commission erred in its decision to approve the project. Richards also said he couldn't find the staff or planning commissioners did anything wrong in determining the project was exempt from an environmental impact report.
Kruse argued earlier that the city "was about to go into construction hell," with not only the Carmel Legacy Hotel project, but others that could be on the way soon. Baron in his comments suggested that the city could come up with a construction management plan.
Carrie Theis, the granddaughter of Donna and Fred Hofsas and a former councilmember, told the council she purposely kept the new hotel's design "within the box" of the space occupied by the old hotel. She also said she didn't ask for any variances, like extra rooms in addition to the current 38, because she knew it would trigger an environmental impact report, among other requirements.
The vote to deny the appeal and allow the project to move forward was 4-0. Councilmember Alissandra Dramov left the meeting after approximately five-and-a-half hours. The Hofsas House discussion took another two hours.
At the very start of the meeting just after 4:30pm, the council spent nearly an hour debating whether to approve Kruse's request to continue his appeal to August. Kruse argued it wasn't fair to discuss the appeal on July 9 because his lawyer wasn't able to be there. Theis called it a delay tactic. The council voted 5-0 to hear the appeal that night.