www.montereycountynow.com AUGUST 20-26, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 11 The coastline north of Tioga Avenue in Sand City may eventually undergo a makeover after the California Coastal Commission gave the green light to a seaside hotel project, decades in the making. Sand City Collections LLC is proposing a 100-room hotel and resort complex, tentatively called the Collections Resort, which would include a restaurant, spa and 25-unit tent cabin campground intended to be more affordable than the hotel. As part of the project, the developer promises to restore and preserve the habitat around the hotel and resort, alongside providing public access improvements, such as an extension of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail, connecting disparate parts of the pedestrian pathway and a roundabout at the end of Tioga Avenue. “They have figured out how to get that area cleaned up as part of the project,” Sand City Mayor Mary Ann Carbone says. Addressing the Coastal Commission on Wednesday, Aug. 12, Carbone said, “I, as an Indigenous mayor—first in California—am a coastal steward. I have volunteered at every coastal cleanup for over 30 years now and it is the fabric of my soul that we get this beach cleaned up. It hurts my heart to see it and I am happy to see that we may come to a compromise with the various partners here.” In the past, large areas of the nearly 30-acre project site had been used for sand mining, which stopped about 30 years ago. “A variety of unpermitted materials remain along the shore, some of which appear to have been related to some of these long-ago activities,” according to a report by Coastal Commission staff. The development history of the stretch of Sand City coastline goes back to the 1980s, when larger resort proposals were ultimately shut down by the Coastal Commission and abandoned by developers. More recently, around 2014, Sand City Collections proposed a nearly 12-acre, 340-unit resort, which was also scrapped following an appeal to the Coastal Commission. The developer then revised the project, “resulting in the current proposal, which thus represents the culmination of nearly 50 years of planning and permitting activity at this site,” the report reads. At 100 rooms and 25 tent cabins spanning about 2.5 acres, the current proposal is significantly smaller than previous iterations. The developers have promised to clean up and preserve the 25-acre area around the resort and address Coastal Act violations related to the former sand mining operations. The report points out that the site will potentially be subject to coastal hazards in the future and that if the resort is threatened by phenomena like sea level rise it will need to be removed or relocated. Despite the potential for coastal hazards in the near or distant future, Coastal Commission staff recommended approving a coastal development permit for the project, which commissioners did in a unanimous vote. Coastal Permission A proposed hotel known as the Collections Resort in Sand City inches forward. By Aric Sleeper The Sand City Collections hotel project includes plans to clean up industrial debris at the end of Tioga Avenue and create public amenities, including parking, restrooms and beach access. NEWS “It is the fabric of my soul that we get this beach cleaned up.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
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