On a crisp autumn afternoon at the Pacific Grove Farmers Market, there’s more than just the switch from summer to fall produce that marks the change of seasons. A line of candidate tables along Central Avenue signals that election season is in full swing. Pacific Grove has eight total candidates running – two for mayor and six for three seats on the P.G. City Council.
Council candidates Debby Beck, Lori McDonnell and Tina Rau, and mayoral candidate Mike Wachs are out in force on Oct. 3. Rau says with each week that brings the Nov. 8 election closer residents are becoming more engaged. “A lot of younger people are coming in and people are asking more questions,” she says.
Wachs, challenging incumbent Bill Peake, is not only new to politics, he’s new to P.G. The nonprofit design manager, who moved to town two years ago, decided to run against Peake because “people should have more than one choice in a democracy.” His concerns are building more affordable housing, taking advantage of new state laws making it easier to build housing in shopping centers.
Peake is running for a third time, having won the position in 2018 and a second term, unopposed, in 2020. (He first joined as a councilmember in 2014.) He says he wants to finish the work he began to protect P.G.’s coastal environment and bolster the town’s economy. He lists affordable housing as important, and wants the city to plant more trees and initiate a climate action plan.
Council incumbent Joe Amelio is also running to complete work started since he first joined in 2018, like the building of a luxury hotel at the American Tin Cannery. He estimates the city is losing $300,000 annually in transient occupancy and sales taxes each year the project is not built. (The project, approved by the council in January, is in litigation and under appeal with the California Coastal Commission.)
Running for the first time is Debby Beck, a real estate agent who currently serves on the P.G. Planning Commission and has been involved in the city’s Economic Development Commission. Her main issues are providing affordable housing, especially for senior citizens to meet P.G.’s housing number, as well as improving communication and transparency in city government.
Former P.G. planning commissioner and retired Army officer Mark Chakwin is dissatisfied with how the current council operates. He believes the city is built out but thinks it could increase construction of accessory dwelling units and take a more aggressive approach to infill projects with duplexes and four-plexes.
Lori McDonnell is against the ATC hotel project and believes the city could improve its environmental stewardship. A healthy environment and healthy businesses “go hand in hand,” the clinical research analyst says. She’d like to see the city encourage housing and not hotels, and find ways to help residents, especially seniors, remain in their homes.
A renter with a 3-year-old son with special needs, Darla Vining worries about being priced out of the market and a school district she believes her son needs. Although she doesn’t believe the city can meet the state housing requirement, she does think the city could zone more buildings that includes apartments on top floors.
Rau, a retired business manager and current chair of the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force, saw the council was losing two women (Jenny McAdams and Amy Tomlinson, who both chose not to run for reelection) and wanted diversity of not just of members but of thought.
Recently, a tweet Rau posted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – in which she was critical of people who use religion to enforce their views on others – came to light with sharp criticism by some residents. She says she’ll be issuing a full statement and apology to the task force at its meeting on Oct. 10. “You do things in the heat of the moment, in frustration, sadness and anger. All you can do is acknowledge the hurt and try to do better,” she says.
Here is additional information on each of the candidates, beginning with the position of mayor.
Bill Peake
Why he’s running for reelection: “I think I can contribute more to the community,” he says. “There’s still work to be done on the environment as well as helping the local economy.” He adds affordable housing as an important issue. “Three things that I’d like to move forward on: One is coastal wildlife habitat protection, this is an effort I started three years ago; the second is I’d like to see as many trees planted on public property as possible; and the third one is to initiate a city climate action and adaptation plan.”
Meeting Pacific Grove’s goal of planning for 1,125 housing units under the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation requirement: “That’s the million dollar question,” says Peake. “How can we alter our housing regulations in a way that is acceptable to the community and at the same time works toward achieving the very high bar that’s been given to us?” He points to the city’s Welcome Home Initiative that identified steps to include more housing. The question remains what they will look like and will they make sense for Pacific Grove.
Revitalizing downtown: Besides planting more trees, Peake says the city could improve communications with the business community “to see where the impediments are for them to expand or be successful, or for new businesses to come to town.”
Mike Wachs
Why he’s running: Besides wanting to give voters a choice, Wachs says he’s observed “a lack of urgency to get things done and make tough decisions because my kids will grow up here and we’re going to grow old here.” He hopes his kids will be able to raise their kids here, and he’s met people who have had to leave because they can’t afford to live here.
Increasing housing: In addition to his idea to use new state legislation that allows mixed use housing in shopping centers, Wachs suggests incentivising apartment complexes that are not historic to retrofit and build another level. He’s also in favor of promoting ADUs.
Other ideas: He’d like the city to sponsor a fund to get a gray water recycling program that would provide diagrams and pre-designed plans for use with appliances. He’s interested in working with the P.G. Chamber of Commerce to bring a food and wine festival to town, and offer eateries a year of free rent if the achieve a Michelin star or James Beard award.
Revitalizing downtown: “I think we have to consider a blight tax (for empty storefronts) or allow adaptive reuse until they get market rate rents, to activate those spaces,” he says.
Joe Amelio
Adding more housing: Amelio says he was incredulous when he first heard the requirement to plan for 1,125 units. “That is an unbelievable number, however we can’t just raise the white flag,” he says. He says the city has to look at as many spaces as possible where housing could be added, including the city-owned parking lot behind the movie theater on Lighthouse Avenue. “Plus I think we need to continue to promote ADU units.”
Improving downtown: Encouraging development downtown needs to continue, as do parklets for outdoor dining. “Parklets have done a great job for the restaurants downtown, we need to keep them going.”
Debby Beck
Why she is running: She’s been asked over the last 20 years to run at various times. Four years ago she was asked again but she says she wasn’t ready. Since then she’s been heavily involved with the city, especially during the first two years of Covid-19. She also served on the Monterey County Civil Grand Jury. She thinks running for council is “giving back to our community and doing my civic duty.”
Meeting P.G.’s RHNA housing number: “Do I think it’s obtainable? I don't think anyone in our community thinks it's obtainable,” Beck says. However, she says the city can work toward the number by looking at vacant properties, adjusting density, rezoning and mixed-use buildings.
Improving downtown: She started an adopt-a-block program to keep streets clean. It will take the Chamber and the city to work with property owners.
Mark Chakwin
Why he’s running: “I’m not satisfied with how the city council operates. I don’t think it is transparent,” Chakwin says. He believes current councilmembers don’t take residents’ comments into consideration. He also decided to run because of RHNA and updating the city’s housing element. He says two of the biggest challenges ahead for the city are housing and budget management.
Meeting the RHNA requirement: Pacific Grove as a small town doesn’t have the capacity to add 1,125 more units, says Chakwin, and he believes adding that many housing units will ruin the town. It’s not just the aesthetics of it, he says, “our infrastructure can’t support it.” He thinks the city should add units through a more aggressive approach to encouraging accessory dwelling units. He also thinks the city should encourage more infill development, especially by encouraging duplexes and four-plexes. The city’s condominium regulations are “draconian” and should be updated to allow a higher density. Combined, those ideas will be a “fix that will lead us on a path that hopefully the state will approve our housing element.”
Improving downtown: “I would throw some more direct money into our economic development,” he says. He also believes the city should bring back an employee development manager. P.G. needs to craft a better image of its downtown. Unlike Carmel which has a distinct image, P.G.’s “is kind of like a bandaid” of thrift stores, art stores and other shops.
Lori McDonnell
Why she’s running: “I just feel like this is a critical time in making sure we’re moving the city in a direction that is a direction the residents want it to be going,” she says. Making sure the city is not ignoring environmental stewardship is important to her. Besides being against the ATC hotel project, McDonnell believes a new plan to manage the forest at George Washington Park will harm one of the last Monterey Pine stands in the area. “We want to make sure we protect that resources and that the butterflies are returning there,” she says.
Adding more housing units: She thinks the city should look into programs that will help residents remain in the city instead of being priced out. “ADUs are an obvious choice and a lot of residents seem open to that.” She also thinks the city should add additional housing in business districts and thinks it should emphasize housing instead of hotels.
Improving downtown: For McDonnell there are two parts: How does the city draw residents to downtown? How do we draw tourists downtown? The answers may include turning parts of downtown into a greenbelt, where people may gather. She said they need to find ways to support businesses and help them thrive.
Other issues: Caring for the environment is a key issue for McDonnell, as well as housing, including for senior citizens who are being priced out.
Tina Rau
Why she’s running: Rau was concerned the P.G. City Council was losing the two women councilmembers. (Jenny McAdams and Amy Tomlinson, both who decided not to run for re-election.) She believes diversity of thought is also important, with people who come from different locations and life experiences. Volunteerism is also important to her and she says she’s dedicated her retirement to public service.
Increasing housing: Rau says the city needs to take a multi-pronged approach to adding housing, including changing zoning, transforming building and land, and ADUs. I’m not sure we can get to 1,125. We can get close-ish,” she says. Like other candidates, Rau thinks housing for seniors is critical. “We have to look at what are the safeguards to help people stay in their homes.”
Downtown: Rau suggests adding an incubator space for launching new businesses, or a commercial kitchen space to help budding restaurateurs. She’s in favor of a vacancy tax to prompt property owners to keep their spaces occupied.
Darla Vining
Why she’s running: In addition to her concern for affordable housing for renters, Vining says she was inspired to run based on the fact she used to work at CSU Monterey Bay for the sustainable hospitality program. After researching the ATC project she felt that the developers were providing a sustainable development that would bring taxes and jobs to P.G.
Increasing housing: She doesn’t believe the RHNA requirement will be fulfilled. “It’s a problem that will dissolve,” she says. However, she suggests finding solutions like awarding stipends to people who add ADUs in their backyards or zoning that allows building apartments on top of commercial spaces. Believing that the basic housing allowance given to military personnel living in the area increases rents, Vining says the city should cap how many service members may rent in the city and how many landlords may rent to service people. (California Senate Bill 222, signed into law in 2019, specifically prohibits housing discrimination against members of the military and veterans.)
Improving downtown: “What we want is to attract visitors and we want to offer residents more opportunities so they don’t have to go outside of city limits,” Vining says. She suggests more advertising of businesses and more marketing to attract new businesses, while retaining existing ones.