Category Archives: Monterey Herald

301 Grand Takes “P.G. Remodel” To New Heights

Posted on by

Usually when someone buys a 600 square foot cottage and adds 3,000 square feet to it with nothing left of the original but the threshold it gets awarded with a historical building sign.

So Doctor buys building, offers to restore it and get waivers on parking spaces required. City discovers building is beyond repair and orders it torn down and parking waivers voided. City Director wants Doctor to make more low income dwellings in new plan. Doc is in it for the money, not social issues.

Doctor should be able to replicate the old building and keep the parking waiver.

543 Laurel Abandoned

New 301 Grand

“Once a historic building is demolished, it loses its historicity,” explained Pacific Grove’s Community and Development Director Mark Brodeur. That in turn changes certain parameters that accompany such a project. In this case those parameters involve parking.
“I informed the new owner that once the demolition is in place his plans as previously approved are no longer going to work because I don’t have the flexibility to allow five parking spaces off site,” explained Brodeur. Instead, Adeeb would have to change the project to accommodate eight parking spaces on site.

301 Grand Takes “P.G. Remodel” To New Heights

Ill Vecchio Raises The Bar

Posted on by

And pours the whiskey from it. Owner gets full on liquor license.

“The more quality restaurants we can bring in the better,” he said. “People want choices, and all restaurants benefit from raising the bar.”

He’d like people to think of Pacific Grove before heading over the hill.

“With all due respect to Carmel, they have problems with high rent, small spaces, difficulty parking. It’s Pacific Grove’s time.”

Ill Vecchio Raises The Bar

Fisher And Peake Try And Save STRs

Posted on by

Remember them at the voting booth.

The revised ordinance included the adoption of a 55-foot zone of exclusion to address density problems and a cap of 250 short-term rentals citywide but the incorporation of a lottery system was eliminated.

Fisher, along with Councilman Bill Peake, voted against the ordinance that took effect on Jan. 20. Fisher said that at the time he didn’t think it was complete enough and that city officials weren’t as clear as they could have been during the November workshop addressing the possibility of incorporating a lottery system into it. During the special meeting, many short-term rental license holders expressed their opposition to the lottery.

Fisher And Peake Try And Save STRs

Monterey Getting $8,000,000 For A Short Section Of Recreation Trail Improvements

Posted on by

Eight Million Dollars for “to go from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Coast Guard station”. The money is coming from a grant (taxes) called the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 that was sold to the tax payers as an investment to fix our roads, freeways and bridges in communities across California. As usual, Governor Moonbeam lies about where our tax dollars are spent.

At least put some lights up and maybe a few 911 phones to cut down on the rapes, robberies and assaults that happens on that dangerous trail.
Rec Trail Graff

“Solutions for congested corridors are usually for Los Angeles or San Francisco so one of the things that we try to do with this grant is highlight the importance of offering an environmentally friendly and alternate form of transportation,” said Andrea Renny. She said that by creating a smoother running trail, drivers could be swayed to become bikers, therefore the improved Rec Trail could also serve to alleviate congestion on the road. And while some have advocated for the need to separate the bicyclists and pedestrians in that stretch of the trail, Renny said that the Parks and Recreation Master Plan calls for widening the trail first before other alternatives can be considered.

Monterey Getting $8,000,000 For A Short Section Of Recreation Trail Improvements

Park In Parker’s Park?

Posted on by

Not many van dwellers willing to take up offer. Why? Because there are rules? Because it’s easier to park on city streets?

$150,000 spent. Six people served. Tax and spend.

According to a report to the county Health and Human Services committee, a total of six participants have signed up so far for the program, including its access to case management services aimed at providing links to jobs and housing. But none had actually parked at the site as of last week

Park In Parker’s Park?

Burglar Caught After Citizen Witnesses Break In

Posted on by

Don’t mess with South of Sinex.

Salinas resident Marcus Swingle, 29, was climbing out of the window of the Forest Hill Ace Hardware located at 1136 Forest Ave. in the Fairway Shopping Center at around 4 a.m. The officers were there to greet him.

Officers credited an observant citizen who had noticed someone who appeared to be breaking into the store. The citizen subsequently notified the police, providing them with a run-down of what the suspect was doing.

Burglar Caught After Citizen Witnesses Break In

301 Grand Avenue Gets Orders To Be Torn Down

Posted on by

301 Grand

City Building Official John Kuehl who issued a notice and order to vacate and demolish the building located at 301 Grand Avenue because it was deemed “unfit for human occupancy.” Kuehl gave the tenants until the end of January to move out of the structure, which is listed on the city’s Historic Resources Inventory.

Specifically, the notice addressed to the building’s owner Manal Mansour noted that the building’s exterior surfaces have decayed to a point of allowing water to enter the building and that its structural members aren’t properly maintained and are in a deteriorated condition.

The two-story structure was a mixed use building that had primarily commercial and office uses on the ground floor and three apartments on the second floor, according to Mark Brodeur, the city’s community and economic development director. But Brodeur said the owner had future plans to build out the second floor because in its current capacity it wasn’t a full two-story building.

301 Grand Avenue Gets Orders To Be Torn Down

Letters From The Editor – Let Store Owners Take Up Parking Spaces

Posted on by

Newcomer to P.G. thinks shoppers will park far from town to spend money, therefore LET store merchants take up all the 2 hour spaces all day.

I have lived in Pacific Grove for 18 years. In that period of time I have observed our parking meter police ticketing vehicles belonging to our local PG merchants and their employees. These people must interrupt whatever they are doing every two or three hours to move their cars from one spot to another. This is usually a few feet from where they were. How foolish is this?
Mark C. Klein, Pacific Grove

Mark C. Klein needs TWO parking spaces for his Cadillac.
Mark C Klein Cadillac
Mark C. Klein of Pacific Grove stands next to his 1975 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Klein bought the car from an estate in Illinois. It had 3,900 original miles on it.

Smarter resident sets it straight.

The last time I worked in any city including Pacific Grove I was told that downtown parking was for customers and employees had to park elsewhere and walk to work. In Pacific Grove you can park on off streets and Pine Avenue with no time restrictions. Mr. Klein’s way of thinking is let’s make customers drive around looking for parking while businesses stay empty — no wonder Pacific Grove is losing money.
Gary L. Page, Monterey

Letters From The Editor – Let Store Owners Take Up Parking Spaces
Letters From The Editor – Mark C Klein Is Wrong

Run The Short Term Rentals Out Of Town

Posted on by

And take the uncaring elected officials with them.

Tar And Feather

A group of Pacific Grove residents have introduced a proposed initiative measure that would prohibit short-term rentals in the city’s residential zones.

They included the intent to prohibit short-term rentals in most residential neighborhoods, city’s efforts to regulate short-term rentals as unsuccessful and insufficient to curb the negative impacts of such rentals, and to ensure that Pacific Grove has adequate housing for city residents to remain the “city of homes” as provided in the City’s Charter, General Plan and Municipal Code. It also recognized that the city may continue to regulate short-term rentals in the Coastal Zone as long as those regulations protect the community and are consistent with laws administered by the California Coastal Commission. Lastly, it proposed prohibiting short-term rentals in designated residential districts without changing existing rules that permit home-sharing.

Run The Short Term Rentals Out Of Town

Wharf Marketplace Up For Sale

Posted on by

Farmers selling very expensive produce decide to pack up and go back to Salinas.

Wharf Marketplace

Opened four years ago in the former train depot by Tanimura & Antle, the property was originally developed as a food hall to be stocked with the “Bounty of the County” as it was described – locally grown and produced products. But since that time it has become more popular as a cafe/eatery.

Antle also said it was time for the business to focus its efforts on opportunities in its Spreckels-based division.

Wharf Marketplace Up For Sale