10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY january 19-25, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com Jon Kramer loves all things rocks, gems and fossils, and is convinced he can build a successful business around his lifelong hobby in a mash-up between a geological museum, a small retail space and a mini-boutique hotel inside an empty old church in Pacific Grove just two blocks from the coast. The one-time geology-major-turned-businessman plans to include interactive geology exhibits inside each hotel room. “It would be like spending a night in a museum,” Kramer says of what he has named Casa Museo, Spanish for “museum house.” “It’s really going to be unlike anything you’ve ever seen.” Little did Kramer know back in July 2021 he would find himself between a rock and a hard place when it came to city officials who refused to even accept his project application, claiming that zoning did not allow for lodging units. Their reason made no sense to Kramer, who pointed out that the city’s own codes stated that California Coastal Commission rules, which allow lodging in the coastal zone, take precedence. Officials refused to budge, so Kramer filed a lawsuit in Monterey County Superior Court demanding the city accept his application. The city lost the case and in January 2022, Judge Carrie Panetta signed a settlement order that required the city to accept the application with up to four lodging units, provided Kramer include four off-street parking spaces. The Pacific Grove City Council retained the right to approve, disapprove or modify the project. The application went through two rounds of review at the city’s Architectural Review Board and then another two rounds with the Planning Commission. Some residents argued that parking would be an issue, along with traffic, since the project is situated around the block from what is slated to become a 225-room luxury hotel in the American Tin Cannery, currently under appeal at the Coastal Commission. On Jan. 12, the Planning Commission voted 6-0 in favor of Kramer’s project, after requiring off-site parking for employees and other conditions. Kramer plans on renovating the timber-framed church into a museum space featuring fossils and other artifacts with a coastal theme and a small sales space in one corner. Some later additions in the back of the church will be demolished and replaced with the lodging units and a garage. Around the outside of the building, along Central and Dewey avenues, there will be a geological garden with boulders from various regions of the country. Kramer hopes to begin construction this summer. He estimates the project will take about two years to complete. A long-stalled affordable housing project in Seaside appears ready to move forward: On Jan. 5, Seaside City Council approved an agreement with Cal Am to use the city’s stored water credits to serve the project, which will finally clear the hurdle that kept the project in limbo for years. The project, known as Ascent, will be located on 2.85 acres on Broadway Avenue between Terrace and San Lucas streets. It will have 106 units—a mix of one-, two- and three bedrooms—16 of which will be affordable. City Council approved Ascent in November 2019, and the site was demolished. The plan was to serve it with water using credits from the developer and the city—the project would use about 13 acrefeet annually—but Cal Am wouldn’t set a water meter to serve it due to the state’s cease-and-desist order regarding overpumping of the Carmel River. So Seaside got creative. Last June, the city reached an agreement with the developer to provide water to the project from Seaside’s municipal water utility by running a pipeline from its system— which supplies a small area around upper Broadway— down Broadway to the Ascent site. The city also paid a $7.5 million capacity fee to Marina Coast Water District to irrigate the Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses with recycled water, which allows the city to accrue stored water credits in the Seaside Basin. The agreement City Council approved Jan. 5 will allow Cal Am to use those water credits to serve the project, which will negate the need for the city to build the pipeline, which was expected to cost $1.5 million. “For me this is all about making Ascent,” says City Attorney Sheri Damon, who helped negotiate the agreement. “We have to have a path to move [it] forward.” The city will need about 10 months to accrue enough credits for the meter to be set, but construction can begin now. Rocking It A unique museum/microhotel overcomes dissent to get approval in Pacific Grove. By Pam Marino news Birthday Bash The Monterey History & Art Association is celebrating its 92nd birthday. The nonprofit has been charged with a mission of preserving the cultural history of Monterey since 1931. There will be cake and refreshments, and a raffle for a chance to win an original 1945 Jo Mora print, valued at $900. 6pm Thursday, Jan. 19. Monterey History and Art at Stanton Center, 5 Custom House Plaza, Monterey. Free. 372-2608, mhaadali.com. Damage Control State and local teams have begun to conduct damage assessments in areas impacted by flooding, and the Monterey County Department of Emergency Management has created an additional survey to be sure all damage information is captured. If your home was impacted, you can complete a survey; responses will be used to try to receive FEMA funding. Survey at arcg.is/1Pefe11 in English, or at arcg.is/5qqKv in Spanish. Auto Action The Monterey County Workforce Development Board hosts a Tesla informational session highlighting jobs available in Fremont with hands-on work building vehicles. Register to speak with a recruiter. 10am-3pm Wednesday, Jan. 25. Salinas Career Center, 344 Salinas St., Salinas. Free. Make an appointment at bit.ly/ SalinasRecruitment. More information at montereycountywdb.org/calendar. Future Housing The city of Marina is looking for public opinion on designs and layouts for future residential and mixed-use developments. “[Marina] is preparing Objective Design Standards to help bring the city into compliance with State Senate Bill 330, which requires individual jurisdictions to establish a clear and impartial approval process for all housing projects,” according to the city website. Survey at surveymonkey.com/r/ MarinaODS. For more information about the process, visit cityofmarina. org/1189/Objective-Design-Standards or contact Planner Alyson Hunter at 884-1251 or ahunter@cityofmarina.org. Farm Day Monterey County Agricultural Education is looking for volunteer guides to help with Farm Day, a unique opportunity for agricultural workers to explain where our food comes from to third-grade students. Volunteers need not work in the industry. Thursday, Jan. 26. Salinas Valley Fairgrounds, 625 Division St., King City. For information about volunteering, visit bit.ly/FarmDayVolunteer. More at montereycountyageducation.org. In Ascent Creative problem solving clears the path for a long-awaited housing project in Seaside. By David Schmalz Julie and Jon Kramer plan on filling a one-time church in Pacific Grove with fossils and skeletons of organisms that lived off the coast in prehistoric times. e-mail: publiccitizen@mcweekly.com TOOLBOX “It’s really going to be unlike anything you’ve ever seen.” Daniel Dreifuss
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