Cambria’s Burton Drive could get a new motel—that is, if the California Coastal Commission allows the development in light of an appeal that claims the community doesn’t have the water supply.
“In terms of water supply, Cambria has historically had difficulty meeting even existing water demand given that the community’s two main water sources, San Simeon and Santa Rosa creeks, have long suffered from overdraft conditions,” reads the appeal, which the California Coastal Commission will review at its Sept. 12 meeting.
The plot of land in question, between Burton Drive and Santa Rosa Creek, is where two existing empty buildings reside: The former Brambles Dinner House, unused since 2011, and former gift shop Oliver’s Twist—both of which were previously purchased by Dirk Winters, owner of local lodging chain Moonstone Hotel Properties.
According to the appeal, both the Brambles and Oliver’s Twist buildings, as well as an existing nearby parking lot, would be converted into 26 motel rooms and a 31-spaced covered parking lot under a plan approved by a SLO County Planning and Building Department hearing officer on June 7.
This approval determined that since Brambles and Oliver’s Twist were previously operating as a restaurant and gift shop, the project is not a “‘new water using’ development” and that a motel would use less water than the two previous businesses combined.
The appellants, Coastal Commissioners Justin Cummings and Ann Notthoff, argued that the county got this projection wrong and the permit raised concerns under the SLO County Local Coastal Program (LCP), which provides tight restrictions on new development in Cambria due to water availability.
Commissioners determined that the 26-roomed motel would use an equivalent of 18 homes’ worth more water than the site’s current water use, the appeal stated.
“The scope and magnitude of the project here, in such a well-known water-scarce community, raises significant coastal resource problems,” the appeal reads.
Commissioners said that the county conducted a “hypothetical exercise” that calculated the highest water usage for the plot based off a restaurant and gift shop, not the actual proposed project of a motel.
“These conclusions are simply not supported by the facts,” according to the appeal document.
In addition to water use, the commissioners who appealed the project said there was no specific plan to provide lower-cost lodging, another requirement under the LCP that specifies that 25 percent of rooms must be affordable.
“It is not at all clear that LCP lower-cost accommodation requirements would be met under the county’s approval, and thus raises … conformance issues,” the commissioners stated in the appeal. Δ
This article appears in Sep 5-15, 2024.