The People’s McMansion

THE PEOPLE’S McMANSION… Squid’s pretty happy with Squid’s modest lair, but a project that came before the County Planning Commission on Dec. 11 makes Squid’s lair look like a speck. On a 0.081-acre parcel – 3,252 square feet – in Carmel Valley, at 10196 Oakwood Circle, is a proposal to build a six-story, 12,470-square-foot home, plus an attached garage just over 930 square feet, a 2,124-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, a 483-square-foot junior ADU and around 3,420 square feet of decks.

The house is proposed to be built into an oak-studded hillside at a slope of more than 25 percent – in excess of what’s allowed by the county’s zoning ordinances – which is one reason county staff recommended denying a permit for it, and a county report also notes the project application contained “misleading and factually incorrect information.”

The applicant, San Francisco-based Rene Peinado, has a separate application into the county, so far deemed incomplete, for essentially the exact same project on the same property, except that the junior ADU would be deed-restricted as affordable. That, theoretically, would allow it to qualify as a “builder’s remedy” project, meaning that county officials would have much less discretion to deny it. What exactly a six-story mansion is a remedy for, Squid cannot tell.

DRAMA QUEENS… Squid loves a good song-and-dance routine, and live theater. So Squid had in mind to ooze over to Golden Bough Playhouse in Carmel to see Jersey Boys, produced by Pacific Repertory Theatre, before it closed Dec. 22. But when Squid went looking for tickets, there were big red letters announcing: Canceled, “due to medical issues and further circumstances beyond our control.” Ticketholders might consider donating to the nonprofit, or they could request a refund, an announcement read.

Behind the curtain, people were talking. Squid received a copy of a lengthy email from a cast member who quit, saying he stayed up all night to pen his list of grievances. They include objections to costume-fitting and choreography, among more serious claims, like a performer going onstage with a concussion. In his letter, Jeremy Ingraham noted that some of his concerns had been preemptively dismissed by ex-colleagues, including one who said it was “Gen Z’ers not understanding ‘the show must go on.’”

Squid’s colleague reached out to PacRep Executive Director Stephen Moorer to ask if it was just Gen Z crying, and he responded by throwing shade at the Weekly. “In classic tabloid tradition – because who needs facts or credible sources? – they’ve graced us with thirdhand gossip and half-baked slander from a disgruntled out-of-town performer,” he wrote.

Do two helpings of half-baked gossip make a full drama? Squid thinks it plays like a tragedy.