From the Monterey County Herald Serving Monterey County and the Salinas Valley Thursday, April 19, 2001 Pebble Beach files plans for expansions By THOM AKEMAN takeman@montereyherald.com The Pebble Beach Co. has filed initial plans for the hotel expansions and new golf course that could be allowed under the zoning changes that Monterey County voters approved as Measure A in the November election. The plans are conceptual at this point, consisting only of maps and drawings the company submitted to the county's Planning and Building Inspection Department in order to start the processes required for development permits. It will probably take 18 months to two years for the processing and studies that will be required to turn those concepts into specifics, said Alan Williams, owner of the Carmel Development Co., which is handling the plans for the company. "We promised the voters of Monterey County they would have a full process and they will," Williams said on Wednesday. "From a practical standpoint, we know we have to make this bulletproof." The initial maps contain more details on sizes and locations than were known at the time of the vote, but they don't show any real surprises. They show the company's plans to add: 63 rooms and underground parking for The Lodge at Pebble Beach. 86 rooms, an underground parking garage and a new meeting facility for the Inn at Spanish Bay. a hotel complex of 11 buildings with 24 two-bedroom apartments at Stevenson Drive and Spyglass Hill Road, next to the proposed golf course. the new golf course, wrapped like a hand around the present Cypress Point Golf Course, with its back generally against the Spyglass Hill Golf Course and residential areas. a driving range, consisting of 40 tees, a 290-yard range, two putting greens, a building and parking lots in what is now a forested area along Congress Road across from the entrance to the Inn at Spanish Bay. 60 apartments for Pebble Beach Co. employees - 12 two- and three-bedroom units in four buildings off Congress Road near the Inn at Spanish Bay, and 48 units in eight buildings to be built north of the corporate offices in the corporate yard. an equestrian center in the old quarry area, generally between SFB Morse Drive and the Huckleberry Hill Natural Area, consisting of two show rings, a covered arena, barns, stalls, corrals, parking, three staff houses and a dormitory building. In addition, the Pebble Beach Co. would like to have 36 building lots for single-family houses, 29 of them along the Poppy Hills Golf Course, the other seven on the west side of the Spyglass Hill Golf Course. The rest of the 807 building lots marked in the original zoning map for the Del Monte Forest would be scrapped, as arranged through the changes in Measure A. In the end, the 800-acre Del Monte Forest would be left with about 300 acres of forest in a natural state, about 200 acres used for recreation, according to the maps submitted with the initial plans. Biologists are now doing a comprehensive study of the forest, looking at it as a whole for maybe the first time in history, to see how it could be managed to make it self-preserving, Williams said. So far they have found non-native species to get rid of, trail cuts that have done significant damage and some surprising rebirth of native pine trees, he said. "We're going to get an environmental study that's going to look at the entire forest, not just some point of focus," Williams said. "Part of our plan is to show how we are going to preserve the forest. When we said we were going to preserve it, we weren't kidding anybody." County planners will analyze the initial plans to see what permits will be needed and what the company will have to do to turn the proposals into a formal application, said Jeff Main, a supervising county planner. That will take about a month, he said. Then it will take the company's planners a few weeks to respond and file the formal applications for the necessary permits, Williams said. That will start the formal studies and processes that will lead to public hearings and eventual decisions. The zoning changes in Measure A haven't yet been submitted to the California Coastal Commission for approval. But county planners have been talking to the Coastal Commission staff, getting ready to submit the zoning plan, Main said. The Coastal Commission may require some of the same environmental studies for the zoning that will be necessary for the development permits, Main said. So it has made sense to try to move the zoning through the state level and the planning through the county level at the same time, he said.  Thom Akeman can be reached at 648-1171.   Copyright (c) 2001, The Monterey County Herald, 8 Ragsland Drive, Monterey CA. 93940 (831) 372-3311 A Knight Ridder Newspaper