Stymied by the Byzantine nature of Carmel’s building rules and delay tactics by those who oppose change, Monaco developer Patrice Pastor faced yet another delay last month in his over six-year quest to build the 13,000-square-foot J.B. Pastor Project. On Aug. 4, a modified version of the Carmel City Council – two of the five members were recused – called for more changes to the project.
After the further delay, Pastor threatened to leave “this strange community, if you can call it a community.” Residents disparaged one another, depending which side of the debate they were on.
Pastor made a last-ditch effort through an attorney to pressure Carmel City Attorney Brian Pierik to reverse the recusals but failed, so on Monday, Sept. 8, Councilmembers Jeff Baron, Hans Buder and Alissandra Dramov reconvened to revisit the project again. They voted 3-0 to send the project back to the Carmel Planning Commission. The commission is being tasked with ensuring that the project includes more onsite parking and landscaping.
A large number of Carmelites rushed to the defense of Pastor at the meeting, some calling him a “gift” to the town for his investments – he’s purchased dozens of properties and invested money in improvements – and chiding the city for allegedly discriminating against him.
Buder blamed Carmel’s outdated system of building ordinances and policies and called for a “top to bottom” overhaul, but said they had to make decisions based on current rules. He laid out the reasons why the project did not qualify for in-lieu parking and would have to create more parking through an underground garage.
Dramov wanted another full review of the project’s impact on historical resources and disagreed the project was exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, based on the potential impact on historical resources. Baron and Buder said they would not override a council decision from 2023 based on a past historic impact report.
(3) comments
This is developing into a Netflix-worthy saga. The scenery! The personalities! The palaces! The money!
The knockdown-dragout of Carmel politics might need to be condensed a bit for dramatic purposes, as they say, but there would certainly be no need to invent dramatic characters.
Using the local scenery would actually be quite cheap. Carmel charges $590 for the filming permit, $110 for non-profits or students, with two weeks' notice and COVID19 protocols. Feeding and housing the cast and crew for any length of time might require resources from surrounding communities.
Filming in the Principality of Monaco could be trickier. There's no fee for the permit, but "there may be an 'occupancy fee' for using specific public areas. The process is highly regulated, and the government must approve all projects at least 15 days in advance" (g00gle AI). Lord only knows what "highly regulated" means in Monaco, never mind the occupancy fee, but maybe it would be cheaper to build a soundstage and use local palaces and our own very photogenic ocean.
So much for the scenery. Now we just need the personalities with the palaces and money to work out the plot.
This latest crux might be the denouement! Or not!
I grew up in Carmel in the 60's and 70's when it actually was a village with community spirit. I remember being chastised for my errant frisbies and baseballs landing in neighbor's yards - usually with a smile. Remember the hobby shop on Ocean Ave next to Adam Fox? SOCKO at the old Sunset Field with Jack Jiles pitching... the Carmel High Alumni vs the Fire department? My brother and I are fortunate to own our childhood home on Monte Verde St as a rental property - today it's completely surrounded by cars every day. I would not choose to live in Carmel today - it's just impacted.
Please face reality and consider what Carmel really is today - a holiday and luxury party destination. At least let Mr. Pastor make it beautiful - and build more underground parking garages - figure out how to provide year around shuttles. Quit living in the fantasy that Carmel is a bohemian enclave - fewer people actually live in Carmel now than 100 years ago...
As one of the appellants, I’m writing to say that we don’t oppose the project; we simply want it to comply with Carmel-by-the-Sea’s municipal code and general plan. These exist in part to protect the intimate human-scale nature of our village and to promote responsible planning decisions. The 11 appellants include two former city council members, three former planning commissioners, long-time business owners, and residents who grew up here. We’ve been studying our municipal code and general plan for a long time. These laws aren’t as Byzantine as some believe.
For example, it was obvious that this project never qualified for the in-lieu parking fee program which allows developers to buy their way out of their required parking if their building site has unusual challenges that make off-street parking impractical. Use of the in-lieu program has a high bar. The last time it was used was over 20 years ago. As the council members made crystal clear, there is no technical reason why an underground garage can’t be built to accommodate the required parking as so many other developers have done all over the downtown on much smaller lots. Parking is a serious issue in our village with people arriving from all over the world to visit. Tourists aren’t coming to Carmel on MST. They’re not walking here either. Our parking issue has gotten so bad that using the historic Forest Theater for overflow parking was actually a serious discussion recently. So, new buildings need to accommodate the parking demand they will create. Why the law in this regard wasn’t followed from the start is certainly worth a discussion, but our insistence that it be followed isn’t a delay tactic.
Another point city council unanimously agreed with us on was the landscaping requirement. As proposed, almost all of the required landscaping was up on the roof in private gardens where it did nothing to contribute to the pedestrian experience. We are a town of lushly-planted courtyards and walkways. Walking and exploring the downtown is a pleasure and new buildings need to do their part to contribute to that experience.
More and more people are visiting our little world-famous village. Taylor Swift was here recently. So were the Obamas, and not for the first time. Truly, Carmel-by-the-Sea is an internationally-known treasure, one that needs and deserves responsible stewardship. That means planning for new developments, especially large ones, needs to follow the law.
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