A proposed $100 million-plus expansion of the world-famous Pebble Beach resort was withdrawn yesterday amid criticism from environmentalists and suspicions of interference by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez.
Developers of the project and Monterey County supervisors asked the state Coastal Commission to put the proposal on hold so procedural problems could be ironed out. Commissioners had expected to vote on the measure during a hearing today in Santa Rosa.
Withdrawal of the project also might help smother a burgeoning controversy over efforts by Núñez, D-Los Angeles, to replace a key commissioner's alternate on the eve of the agency's hearing.
Late last week, Núñez abruptly announced that he was replacing the alternate for Chula Vista Mayor and coastal commissioner Steve Padilla, whom he appointed to the commission in July.
Padilla had said he couldn't make the hearing because he needed to attend his daughter's sixth-grade graduation on the same day. He asked his alternate, David Allgood, to take his place.
Padilla has refused to accept the speaker's hand-picked alternate, securities lawyer Elizabeth Brem of Encinitas. State law gives him and other commissioners the right to choose their own alternates.
Núñez's maneuver has infuriated environmentalists, who accuse him of trying to engineer a favorable ruling for the Pebble Beach Co.'s project.
The seaside resort, which hosts an annual PGA golf tournament, is owned by a partnership that includes actor Clint Eastwood, golf legend Arnold Palmer and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth.
Last year, the resort's owners sponsored a Democratic Party fundraiser and for the past nine years have hosted the Speaker's Cup, a golf tournament for state legislators.
Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Núñez, denied there was any connection between the Pebble Beach expansion proposal and the speaker's attempt to replace Padilla's alternate.
“It's all been blown way out of proportion,” Maviglio said.
The project's architect, Alan Williams, said Núñez's actions were an unfortunate distraction.
“It created a sideshow that had nothing to do with what we wanted to do,” he said. “It confused the situation even further.”
The most prudent course at this time, Williams said, is to take additional time to regroup and fine-tune the project.
The commission's staff had recommended rejecting the proposal, which calls for a new 18-hole golf course, a driving range, 160 hotel units, 33 new home lots and 60 employee housing units.
The development would require cutting thousands of rare Monterey pine trees. A staff report said the project does not comply with the state's Coastal Act because it would intrude into protected wetlands and environmentally sensitive habitat.
Williams said the staff report was unfair to the Pebble Beach Co.
He said it picked apart various details of the development while failing to focus on the central issue before the commission: a rezoning of the property as called for by Measure A, a land-use initiative approved by Monterey County voters six years ago.
The measure allows Pebble Beach Co. to develop about 115 acres in exchange for rezoning more than 400 acres of forest as permanent open space, Williams said.
Terry Rodgers: (619) 542-4566; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com
