Investment Strategy…Squid tries Squid’s hardest to save up a few pennies here and there, on the off-chance that someday Squid can upgrade from the lair and buy a nicer place. Squid keeps a piggy bank for spare change, and Squid keeps an account with Charles Schwab, watching Squid’s odds of achieving life dreams move up and down with the market.
Charles Schwab himself—the human, that is, who the eponymous bank is named after—appears to have his own housing-related dreams. Charles and Helen Schwab own a home in Pebble Beach, and now find themselves appealing a decision of the Monterey County Zoning Administrator.
On April 26, Zoning Administrator Mike Novo approved plans—including two zoning variances—for a 4,294-square-foot house on a parcel off Whitman Lane in Pebble Beach, on the site of a former golf maintenance facility. Scott and Charlyse Raven propose a two-story home, “located in a small residential enclave bounded by the 4th, 5th, 6th, 14th, 15th and 16th holes of the Pebble Beach Golf Links,” according to Novo’s report. (In short: way fancier, nicer, bigger, and better than Squid’s lair.)
The Schwabs, along with four other neighbors, appealed the project, and their appeal heads to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for a hearing Tuesday, July 10. The gist of their appeal is that the Ravens shouldn’t get zoning variances—the plans, as approved, would let them exceed allowable lot coverage by 3.9 percent and floor-area ratio by 5.3 percent. But as Novo’s report points out, the quarter-acre lot is substantially smaller than the neighboring lots, which are on the order of 1.5 acres each.
The Schwabs et. al. also contend that the project should trigger a more extensive environmental review process because they think the parcel should be treated as untouched land, noting that it’s vacant—but, Squid notes, it’s only vacant because an old golf course maintenance building was removed nine years ago.
As far as Squid is concerned, another big fancy house is an upgrade from an old maintenance building—and the maintenance building might’ve been an upgrade for Squid from the lair. County planning staff recommend the supes uphold the Zoning Administrator’s decision and approve the Ravens’ house, and Squid predicts that’s exactly what they’ll do.
Meanwhile, Squid will put another few bucks into Squid’s Schwab account. Maybe someday it will give Squid a big enough return to rent a maintenance shack or garage unit from one of these folks.
(1) comment
What we don't know here is what the applicant had to give up, contribute or sign over to the public in order to be granted this variance, but assuming their pound of flesh was adequate, the appeal by Schwab and his neighbors should be denied and the application for the construction of the home should proceed. This is another example of the ultra rich getting more selfish and ridiculous.
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