Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the zoning administrator hearing for 05/14/2026. We are conducting the meeting as a hybrid with some people on attendance here in the room and some people participating by Zoom. If you're participating by Zoom, if you can keep yourself muted, we'd appreciate that to eliminate background noise. If you're on a phone and participating, you can use star nine to raise and lower your hand to be recognized to speak and star six to mute and unmute yourself. If you're on a device, under the reactions tab is a raise hand button and push.

And to mute and unmute yourself, you can hit the microphone icon. So with that, we'll go into our calling the meeting to order, and our first item is roll call. I'm Mike Novo acting today as zoning administrator. We have Arlen Blanca and Bora Akaya from our public work staff, Jess Perez from our environmental services, and I'm Tyler Rosado from environmental health. Is there any other staff that I missed there?

Alright. Thank you. And our next item on the agenda is public comment. This is the time if you have something you wanna say that is not on today's agenda about a topic that's not on today's agenda, an item of general interest, now would be the time to raise your hand and be recognized and speak. Seeing none, I'll close the public comment period. Move on to agenda additions, deletions, and corrections. Madam secretary, do you have such items?

Yes. Through the zoning administrator, there was correspondence for the following items. PLN 260006, PLN 250334, PLN 260074, PLN 2 60063, And all correspondence was distributed to the zoning administrator and all interested parties.

Thank you. I received it all. Our next agenda item is acceptance of minutes. We have the draft minutes from April 30. Does anybody have any comments on those draft minutes?

Seeing none, I'll accept the minutes from 04/30/2026. I'll move into our scheduled items. Our first one is PLN250182. This is for a new house on Belmont Circle south of Salinas. And if staff can give me a minute to open my agenda items, I'm ready whenever staff is.

Good morning, zoning administrator, My name is Jordan Evans Polacco, and I'll be presenting staff's report on PLN250182. Caprara Shelley, l Trust et al. The property is located at 23531 Belmont Circle in Salinas within the Toro area. The subject parcel is on low density residential, five acres per unit with a design control overlay. The project involves the construction of a 4,334 square foot single family dwelling with a eleven eighty seven square foot attached garage and associated site improvements.

As proposed, the project meets all site development standards established for the LDR Zoning District. The proposed colors and materials for the

dwelling and garage consists of Baja white cement plaster, weathered brown plank siding, and gray stone veneer. The proposed colors and materials and bulk and mass blend with the surrounding environment as well as they are consistent with the surrounding residential neighborhood character and other dwellings in the neighborhood. The project went before the Torah Luwak on 04/13/2026 where Luwak members voted four to zero to support the project as proposed. Staff would like to make an errata to the project resolution. The resolution references the board of supervisors as the appealable authority for the project, but staff would like to correct this to

the planning commission. Staff recommends that the zoning administrator considers this revision. Therefore, staff recommends that the zoning administrator finds a project categorically exempt pursuant to section one five three zero three of the CEQA guidelines and approve a design approval to allow the construction of the 4,334 square foot single family dwelling with a 1,187 square foot attached garage and associated site improvements. This concludes staff's presentation, and staff is available for questions.

Thank you. I don't have any questions at this time, so we'll move on to, public comment. Is the applicant for this not present? Would you like to make any comments?

No. No comments. Just that I, read the conditions of approval, and they're all fine.

And did you wanna state your name, Ed, right now. I'm the record.

Anybody

else like to speak on this application at 23531 Belmont Circle in Salinas? Seeing none. I will close public hearing. Staff have anything else to add?

There's staff has no further comment.

Alright. Thank you. It will be my decision to finance the project under CEQUA and approve the design approval as recommended by staff at the errata recommended by staff. And with that, the project is approved. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next item is PLN250388. This is, 128 Rogers Road. It's a construction of a house. Staff give me a minute to open my items. Alright. I'm ready whenever Steph's ready.

Good morning, zoning administrator Novo. My name is Jordan Evans Polacco, and I'll be presenting staff's report on PLN250388Torres. The property is located at 128 Rogers Road in Salinas within the Greater Salinas area plan. The property is zoned, residential conservation with 10 acres per unit density and a design control overlay. The project proposes a new 3,453 square foot single family dwelling with a 1,473 square foot attached garage and associated site improvements, including a 2,500 gallon septic system.

The project meets all site development standards based on the resource conservation zoning. The plans include the conversion of an existing 1,200 square foot single family dwelling, which is a manufactured home, into an ADU, but this is to be processed ministerially pursuant to title 21 in government code. Although a planning entitlement is not required and approval for the conversion of the single family dwelling to an ADU is not part of this application, the ADU is dependent and accessory to the single family dwelling. Due to this, there will be a hold on the final of the construction permit for the proposed single family dwelling to prevent occupancy of the ADU prior to the occupation of the single family dwelling. The proposed colors and materials consist of extra white siding, sassy green door and white trim, a versatile gray decorative trim, Versatis stone siding, and concrete roof tiling.

Staff would like to make an errata to the project resolution. The resolution references the board of supervisors as the appealable authority for the project, but staff would like to correct this to the planning commission. Staff recommends that the zoning administrator considers this revision. Therefore, staff recommends that the zoning administrator find the project categorically exempt pursuant to section one five three zero three through the CEQA guidelines and approve a design approval to allow the construction of a 3,453 square foot single family dwelling with a 1,473 square foot attached garage and associated site improvements, including a 2,500 gallon septic system. This concludes staff's presentation, and staff is available for questions.

I think my only question has to do with how visible this might be from perhaps Highway 101. I'm not sure exactly where where it might even be visible from. Is it visible from any significant viewing areas?

The zoning administrator, staff, did a a virtual site inspection from the highway, and the staking and flagging was not visible.

Thank you. Because the only reason I asked is because it's pretty bright white. So I wanna make sure it wasn't gonna stick out. Alright. I'd like to open the hearing. Is the applicant present, please? Good morning. Good morning. Did you wanna make any comments? No problem. Okay. Anybody else like to speak on this application at 128? Maybe stop sharing. Seeing none, I'll close the public period public comment period. And, anything else from staff?

Staff has no further comment.

Alright. So I'll find that the project is categorically exempt and approve the design approval with the route of recommended by staff and some non substantive changes to the resolution. And with that, the project has approved. Thank you.

So

our next few hearings, items three, two, are all related to commercial vacation rentals. So some of you may know the county adopted the vacation rental regulations last year on processing quite a few applications all coming through this hearing body in the last couple months. The process of adopting the regulations occurred over many years with extensive public participation, and the outcome was a balancing board of supervisors felt was appropriate, allowing 4% of homes for use as commercial vacation rentals within each of our planning areas. Part of that determination was that it was better to have a well regulated land use rather than dealing with a lot of illegal land uses. The board dealt with this for at least ten years developing the regulations and holding community outreach.

So the regulations ensure that each site is managed and responsible to respond to any issues. In addition to the zoning regulations, the county code includes regulations in chapter 7.12 for those that are interested, which includes prohibitions on outdoor amplified noise and requires a sign be posted at a at a visible location along the street so that neighbors can find the property manager information and contact them if they do have any issues. So these applications are considered here by the zoning administrator where we we determine whether the applications meet the adopted regulations. As part of the deliberations, I do look for and we consider whether there are some unique circumstances applicable to certain properties. And so that's, part of what I wanna hear today is if there's anything unique, I need to hear that.

So with that, we're gonna launch into our remaining set of applications. We'll start with the item three, which is TLN260006. And this is at 26234 Inspiration Avenue Environmental. If staff can give me a minute to open my agenda items. Okay. I'm ready whenever staff is. Thank you.

Good morning, zoning administrator Novo. My name is Jack Sorenson, project planner for PLN 260006 Maples. The application is for a commercial vacation rental operation use through a coastal development permit located at 26277 Inspiration Avenue, Carmel in the Carmel area land use plan. The subject property is a medium density residential with with a design control overlay and an 18 foot height limit in the coastal zone. The existing single family dwelling has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two half baths and two on-site parking spaces.

There are carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in every bedroom and fire extinguishers in the kitchen. The property is accessed through a county maintained road and will not lose existing residential character. The county prepared FEIR for vacation rental ordinance project identifies regulations that were developed to ensure compatibility with the existing residential uses. The objective of the regulations is to preserve the residential character of the neighborhood. This property has a maximum nighttime occupancy of seven people and a maximum daytime occupancy of 10 guests.

These occupancies exclude infants zero to twelve months and are set for pursuant to chapter 7.12, which establishes the requirement for the vacation rental operation license. The applicant submitted a certified home inspection, which was completed by a certified state of California home inspector. The property has a local property manager who will be available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to respond to complaints or concerns that arise at the property. The property manager will be able to arrive on-site within thirty minutes of receiving a complaint or concern. The operations plan provides addresses and contact phone numbers for the police station, fire station, hospital, and 24 clinic.

The subject property falls within the city of Carmel by the sea sphere of influence, therefore, subject to the five to eight minutes for response times. We were at fire station is eight minutes away, and the community hospital of Monterey Peninsula is twelve to fourteen minutes away, which provides twenty four hour emergency medical and fire response, which provide medical paramedic and advanced life support. Although CHOMPA is twelve to fourteen minutes away, MOGU urgent care is eight minutes away, which provides twenty four hour emergency medical and fire response services for structural coverage. This information is also included in the informational notice to individuals staying at the property along with quiet hours and notification of emergency routes. Condition of approval number three prohibits the property from hosting corporate or private events unless the property has a separate entitlement for such use.

The property must comply with MCC section 10.6 or the operator could face escalating fines if they do not comply. The approval of this commercial vacation rental would not allow any tree removal or development to occur on the parcel. Note the requirement in section 20 requires that the owner of the CVR shall only have an ownership interest in one CVR unincorporated Monterey County. The regulations allow the same property manager to manage multiple CVRs. The regulations for commercial vacation rental allow up to 118 commercial vacation rentals to be proposed in the Carmel Area Land Use Plan.

If approved, this would be the nineteenth approved commercial vacation rental in the Carmel Area land use plan. Public comment was submitted and concerned with neighborhood compatibility as well as support for the rental project. The county prepared an FEIR for the vacation rental ordinance project, which includes coastal ordinances. The FEIR FEIR did not identify any significant impacts for CVRs up to the cap specific for each planning area. The FEIR identified potential negative effects, including nuisance issues such as noise, traffic, and parking.

These areas are addressed by enforced regulations outlined within our code. The FEIR did not find any significant effects for any other areas. Proposed CVR complies with the Monterey County code regulations and standards and is consistent with the MDR zoning designation. The property must comply with the noise control regulations under MCC section 10.6 or the operator could face escalating fines if they do not comply. Staff finds that the project qualifies for a class one categorical exemption pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15,301 and no exceptions under section fifteen three zero zero point two apply.

And staff recommends the zoning administrator find the project categorically exempt pursuant to CEQA guidelines section fifteen three zero one and approve a coastal development permit for a commercial vacation rental operation use to allow the use of a residential property for transient lodging for a period of thirty calendar days or fewer. This concludes staff's presentation, and staff is available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't have any questions at this time, so we'll open the hearing. Is the applicant for this one present, please?

Yes. Chris Corley here representing the applicant. I'm joined by Rhonda Napoles, the owner. I believe that this project achieves what the ordinance exactly set out to do, which is provide visitors access to the coast as well as exploring the Carmel area in a unique home and situation. The owner has been operating as a vacation rental prior to the ordinance and has received zero complaints, and letters of support are here from the neighbor. And, yeah, I think Rhonda also has prepared something to say as well. But yeah. Thank you. I'm here if you have any questions.

Alright. Thank you.

May I sit? Is that okay?

You can sit stand. Your preference.

Do a handstand?

Alright.

Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. My name is Rhonda Maples, and I'm one of the owners of the home located on Inspiration Avenue. My two brothers are the other owners. Before I get into the details of our application, I'd like to share a little about the home itself because to our family, it's much more than just a property.

Around 1999, my mother Chris and stepfather Gary purchased a plot of land here in Carmel. My mother loved this town. She loved the beaches, the restaurants, the architecture, the art, and the overall character of the community. Even before construction began, she and Gary spent time driving through neighborhoods, admiring homes, and gathering inspiration for what would eventually become their dream home. My mother worked closely with an architect to design a home that reflected the character and aesthetic of Carmel.

Every detail was intentional, from the architecture to the furnishings to the landscaping. This was the only home she ever custom built, and she poured her heart into it. For more than twenty years, our family celebrated holidays there. We gathered with friends. We built lasting relationships with neighbors.

Carmel was never simply a vacation destination for us. It became a true second home in my mother's pride and joy. After my mother passed away, my brothers and I faced a difficult decision about what to do with the home. Ultimately, we chose to keep it because it represents our family history and the legacy she left behind. Our hope is to preserve it and continue to enjoy it ourselves while occasionally sharing it with visitors who appreciate Carmel in the same respectful way she did.

I also wanted to be clear about what we are and are not. We are not investors, and this is not a large commercial operation. My brothers and I each have our own homes and careers elsewhere. Our goal is simply to offset the substantial costs associated with maintaining the property, including taxes, insurance, landscaping, utilities, and ongoing upkeep so that we can continue to keep it in our family. To ensure the home is responsibly managed, we have partnered with Carmel Realty, a highly respected local property management company.

They handle guest screening, communication, and oversight, and guests are held to strict standards regarding occupancy, parking, noise, and respect for the neighborhood. In practice, the home has primarily been rented for longer stays, often thirty days or more, which naturally reduces turnover and minimizes disruptions. We have never had complaints or issues associated with the property. We have also made substantial efforts to maintain the home responsibly and safely, including interior fire sprinklers, monitored alarms, water leak detection systems, and ongoing professional maintenance and landscaping services. Just as importantly, we have made a genuine effort to be good neighbors.

We have personally spoken with our adjacent neighbors, both of whom provided letters of support for this application. This means a great deal to us because these are relationships our families have valued for many years. We understand the responsibility that comes with this process, and we do not take it lightly. We are simply asking for the opportunity to continue being responsible stewards of a home that means a tremendous amount to our family and has long been part of this community. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Anybody else like to speak on this application at 21634 Inspiration Avenue? I wanna make sure that that's the correct address because you did say something different during your presentation. But That's

the correct address. Yes.

Okay. Just in case there's any Yeah. Should. Anybody else wanna speak on this application? I see a hand. Ross Cunningstein. Go ahead.

Hi. I'm, I guess, a neighbor sort of around the corner. And one thing about the 4% rentals threshold, which seems quite reasonable, is that the immediate area here is actually served by four hotels. Pardon me. Three hotels, Mara, Lincoln Green, and Carmel Beach.

And so the number of rental properties available for short term is actually fairly high. And if you look at VRBO and Airbnb, there are plenty of places. I don't know how many of those are actually approved, you know, by the planning commission, but, you know, I I understand the applicant's point of view here. I I see the financial reasons for doing this. On the other hand, what makes this neighborhood residential is in fact that there are longer term residents.

And I feel that there's a really strong incentive to go to short term rentals because of the high rates that one can make doing that. Unfortunately, that's at the expense of longer term rentals that would benefit a lot of people. And so my concern, and this is not particular to this one, but it it maps onto it, is that everybody feels the financial stress. And if the same thing happens, then everybody is gonna convert places they occupy a part of the time into the short term rentals because that's the obvious financial thing to do. My request to the council, the the planning commission, is I don't think 4% is maybe the right threshold to use in Carmel Point because the high density of existing hotels and existing units.

So can we clamp down on the ones that are operating, you know, a planning permit and so on and revisit that percentage to reflect the number of available rooms or look rental locations within a neighborhood as opposed to just units for rent because I don't want to see all of the houses in our area turning into short term rentals because that is the only way for people to finance them. So I'm I'm I I don't disagree with the applicant in a sense, but I I would prefer that this not be approved or at least held until some of the other things get sorted out. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else like to speak on this application at 26234 Seeing none, we'll turn it back whether the applicant wants to respond at all.

Sure. Yeah. I'd be happy to comment. I think Ross's comment was more, general to the Carmel area, but just to speak to Rhonda's application, I think she's intending no more than six rentals at this point, and most of them are actually longer term. So this isn't necessarily the same capacity that a hotel is going to be bringing through. And so or or other commercial vacation rentals for that matter. I think this is really a very light use of a home that wouldn't otherwise be affordable long term housing for someone.

Thank you. Yeah. Close public hearing. Does Steph have anything else to add? No. There's not. Thank you. Alright. So we appreciate the the comments from the neighbor there speaking about their general concerns about this. And there may be opportunities the board has asked staff to look into potential changes of the ordinance.

I I don't know what the status of that is. What I have to do is rule on the current set of regulations that we have before us today. So it will be my decision to find that the project is does qualify for class one categorical exemption under CEQA and approve the coastal development permit for the commercial vacation rental subject to some non substantive changes to the resolution. I do wanna point out for staff the, what do we call it, the operations plan that we attach, the one that prints out cuts off a lot of words in the questions. So we might have to see if we can expand that as we attach them in the resolution.

But with that, the project is approved. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next item is item four. It's PLN250334. This is for a commercial vacation rental application on Highway 1 in Carmel, and the staff can give them to open up the agenda items, and I will let them as well. I'm I'm when.

Good morning, zoning administrator Novo. My name is Jose Mendoza, and I will be presenting staff's report to PLN250334. Nguyen, Hung, Joseph Folk, and Susan Thiamond Lee. This application is for a commercial vacation rental located at 25240 Highway 1 Carmel, California in Carmel planned use plan. The subject property is zoned medium density residential with a maximum gross density of two units per acre with a design control overlay within the coastal zone.

The existing single family dwelling consists of 1,686 square feet with an attached 511 square foot garage. The property has four bedrooms and two bathrooms and four on-site parking spots. There are carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in every bedroom and fire extinguishers in the kitchen. Pursuant to Title 20, commercial vacation rentals must comply with the parking requirements of municipal code section 20. For detached single family dwellings units pursuant to Municipal Code Section 20 are required to have two spaces per unit, the applicant meets this requirement.

Property has a maximum nighttime occupancy of nine people and a maximum daytime occupancy of 13 people. These occupancies exclude infants zero to twelve months and are set for pursuant to Chapter seven, which establishes the requirements for the vacation rental operation license. The applicant submitted a certified home inspection, which was completed by a certified state of California general contractor. The property has a local property manager who will be available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to respond to complaints or concerns that arise at the property. The property manager will be able to arrive on-site within thirty minutes of receiving a complaint or concern.

The operation plans provides addresses and contact phone numbers for the police station, fire station, hospital, and twenty four hour clinic. This information is also included in the informational notice to individuals staying at the property along with quiet hours and notification of emergency routes. Condition of approval number three prohibits the property from posting corporate or private events unless the property has a separate entitlement for such use. The regulations for commercial vacation rentals allow up to 118 commercial vacation rentals to be approved in the Carmel Land Use Plan pursuant to Municipal Code Section 20. If approved, this would be the twentieth approved commercial vacation rental in the Carmel land use plan.

Property is accessed through Highway 1, a county maintained public road, and therefore, not required to comply with municipal codes title 16, chapter 16 o, which regulates private roads in Monterey County. Additionally, staff recommends a condition of approval specifying that vehicles exiting the property at 25240 Highway 1 do so exclusively by turning right onto Highway 1. Due to the limited sight distance during peak hours along this segment of the highway, attempting to make a left turn from the driveway would present an unnecessary safety risk to both the occupants and the traveling public. Restricting egress to right turn movements, ensure safe access to and from the property. The route of memo update to the operations plan was distributed on Monday, the eleventh to the zoning administrator and interested parties.

Additionally, a condition related to safe route access as discussed to ensure safe and appropriate access routes to the site, staff recommends the zoning administrator approve the permit subject to the changes outlined in your auto memo. The county finds that the project qualifies for a class one category exemption pursuant to CEPA guidelines sections one five three zero one and no exemptions under section one five three zero zero point two apply. Therefore, a coastal development permit for a commercial vacation rental is appropriate to allow the use of a residential property for transient lodging for a period of thirty calendar days or fewer. This concludes the presentation of the application. Staff is available for question.

Thank you, and, thank you for anticipating my question on on access. I always have concerns when we're accessing directly off a the state highway or or even a major arterial, to make sure that it's safe ingress and ingress from the site. I appreciate the the condition recommended by staff. Was that Ocean Avenue just just past this? You showed on your screen, you showed a picture of the the ingress point to get into the property, and I was wondering if that was Ocean Avenue just past that. If you don't know, I can ask the applicant.

Let me open it here.

It is. It's it's the next the next third yeah. That slide. Yeah. Okay. So that is the right turn for Ocean, right off the screen. Okay. I'd to open the hearing. Is the applicant present, please?

Yes, sir. I'm the property manager.

Good morning. Good morning. Did you wanna state your name for the record? Oh, yeah.

Sorry. Josh Ohanian with Sanctuary Vacation Rentals.

Did you have any comments you wanted to make today?

No. Nothing, nothing to add. I think, I'd just like to say, that we do have very clear signage inside of the driveway instructing guests that right turn only is allowed. So and it it it's fairly obvious if you were there too, but, we have clear signage for for our guests.

And is that gonna be included in, like, rental agreements, information to the applicants?

Yes. Yes, sir. It it's included in the, contract as well as the access forms that the guests receive.

Thank you. Yes. Anybody else like to speak on this application on Highway 1 in Carmel? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Anything else from staff?

Alright. It'll be my decision to find that the project is categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act and approve the Coastal Development Commit with the changes recommended by staff, including the new condition six distributed on Monday and with some non substantive changes, I believe. Yeah. Some non substantive changes to the resolution as well. With that, the project is approved. Thank you.

Thank you. One go without an objection to noise and traffic.

Good to

see you. Good see you.

Our next item is PLN260074. This is for commercial rotation rental at 24323 San Marcos Road in Carmel. If the steps can give me a minute to open up Here. Staff report. Okay. I'm ready whenever staff is. Thank you.

Good morning, zoning administrator Novo. My name is Jose Mendoza, and I will be presenting staff report for PON260074, Vanger Lance Vincent and Contecco Icatanina b. This application is for a commercial vacation rental located at 24323 San Marcos Road, Carmel, California in the Carmel land use plan. The subject property is a medium density residential with a maximum gross density of two units per acre with a design control overlay and resource conservation with a design control overlay within the coastal zone. The existing single family dwelling consists of sixteen oh one square feet with an attached four ninety three square foot garage and 476 square foot guest house.

The property has a combined total of four bedrooms and four bathrooms and two on-site parking spots. There are current carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in every bathroom and fire extinguishers in the kitchen. Pursuant to title 20, commercial vacation rentals must comply with the parking requirements of municipal code section 20. For sing for detached single family dwellings, units pursuant to municipal code section 20 are required to have two spaces per unit. The applicant meets this requirement.

The property has a maximum nighttime occupancy of nine people and a maximum daytime occupancy of 13 people. These occupancies exclude infants zero to twelve months and are set for pursuant to chapter seven, which establishes the requirements for the vacation rental operation license. The applicant submitted a certified home inspection, which was completed by a certified state of California general contractor. The property has a local property manager who will be available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to respond to complaints or concerns that arise at the property. The property manager will be able to arrive on-site within thirty minutes of receiving a complaint or concern.

The operation plans provides addresses and contact phone numbers for the police station, fire station, hospital, and twenty four hour clinic. This information is also included in the informational notice to individuals staying at the property along with quiet hours and notification of emergency routes. Condition of approval number three prohibits the property from hosting corporate or private events unless the property has a separate entitlement for such use. The regulations for commercial vacation rentals allow up to 118 in the commercial vacation rentals to be approved in the Carmel land use plan pursuant to municipal code section 20. If approved, this would be the 20 approved commercial vacation rental in the Carmel land use plan.

The property is accessed through through San Marcos Road, a county maintained public road, and therefore, is not required to comply with municipal code title 16 chapter 16.8 o, which regulates private roads in Monterey County. Public comment was submitted to the county with concerns of noise, parking, community compatibility, traffic, and regulation. The property must comply with municipal code requirements with potential escalating fines for noncompliance, including parking standards for commercial vacation rentals. A A property manager must be available to respond on-site within thirty minutes of any complaint. The operation plans must include emergency contact information, which is also provided to the guests along with quiet hours and evacuation routes.

For a condition of approval number four, corporate or private events are not allowed permitted without separate entitlement. An errata memo to the to update the operations plan was distributed on Monday, the eleventh, to the zoning administrator and interested parties. Staff recommends the zoning administrator approve the permit subject to the changes outlined in the Nevada memo. The county finds that the project qualifies for a class one categorical exemption pursuant to CEQA guideline sections 15,301 and no exceptions under section 15,300.2 apply. Therefore, approval of a coastal development permit for a commercial vacation rental is appropriate to allow the use of a residential property for transient lodging for a period of thirty calendar days or fewer.

This concludes the presentation of the application. Staff is available for question.

I don't have any questions at this time. Is the applicant present, please, for application?

Yeah. I am.

Lance. Morning. Good morning. Did you have any comments you wanted to make today?

Just, you know, I appreciate the support from staff and the team for facilitating and helping the process go smoothly and helping us make sure we were following all the regulations. So thank

you guys

for your help. Other than that, no no comments.

Did you, see that there was neighbor concern out there? And did you wanna respond to your neighbor? Sure.

Yeah. There those concerns, I think they came in kind of late, so I I got a chance to look at them yesterday. And the concerns make sense. The property is gated. It has quite a bit of parking available inside the property itself behind the gates. We've been operating vacation rental for about a year and a half without any complaint. So my I I take it very seriously, you know, together with our property manager. You know, I'm local as well. I live with my wife and my kids in in Carmel by the sea. We'll make sure that we address any concerns as quickly as possible. But so far, there haven't been any during the year and a half that we've been operating it there, and and our hope is that there won't be going forward either.

Thank you. Anybody else like to speak on this application?

Yes. I'm Joseph Sanish from Carmel Coast State. We are the property managers. We have been operating the property for over a year and a half at this point in time. We have not received any complaints from any of the neighbors, about noise or parking, etcetera.

The, there are some concerns voiced in the the letters coming in about the narrow road. It is a county county maintained road that has met all the traffic safety engineering requirements, and, we we feel very comfortable sending our guests up and down that road, although it's a little windy. But, it's it's a safe place to, drive and walk your dog.

Thank you. Is there anybody else like to speak on this application at two four three two three San Marcos Road? Seeing none, I'll close public hearing. Anything else from staff?

Staff would just like, through the zoning administrator, staff would just like to clarify on the record. Staff stated there was two zoning applicable to this property, resource conservation and medium density residential. And staff would just like to clarify there's only one, which is the medium density residential zoning that's also outlined in the resolution.

Okay. Do we need to clean that up in the resolution, or that was just in the staff report?

That was just in the presentation on the record. The Pres Resolution and staff report indicate the correct zoning.

Okay. Alright. Thank you. So it'd be my decision to find that the project is categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act and approve the coastal development for a coastal commercial vacation rental subject to the findings and conditions recommended by staff and the routing memo. I think that would just attach the operations plan and also with some non substantive changes to the resolution that your project's approved.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next agenda item is PLN 260063. This is a commercial vacation rental application at 24673 Upper Trail in the Carmel area, and staff will give me a you know, to open up my agenda. A packet.

Okay. I'm ready. When are

your staffs?

Thank you.

Morning, zoning administrator Novo. My name is Caio Branzcasa, and I will be presenting presenting staff's report on PLN 260063, the Rousse project. This application is for a coastal development permit for a commercial vacation rental operation located at 24673 Upper Trail in Carmel within the Carmel area land use plan. The existing surrounding neighborhood consists of medium density residential zoning with developed developed lots containing single family dwellings. The subject property is zoned medium density residential with the maximum gross dense density of two units per acre with a design control overlay within the coastal zone.

The medium density residential zoning in the coastal zone allows for commercial vacation rental use subject to the granting of coastal development permit. The property has an existing single family dwelling and a guesthouse and garage guesthouse guesthouse slash garage. The single family dwelling is 2,526 square feet with three bedrooms and two and a half baths. The applicant does not propose to include the guest house slash garage as part of the commercial vacation rental and only proposes to use the single family dwelling. The guest house slash garage will remain locked while the commercial vacation rental is in use.

Pursuant to title 20, detached single family dwellings are required to have two spaces per unit. The project contains at least three parking spaces and exceeds this requirement by one space. The property has a maximum nighttime occupancy of seven people and a maximum daytime occupancy of 10 people. These occupancies exclude infants zero to twelve months old. The applicant submitted a certified home inspection, which was completed by a certified general contractor.

The property has a local property manager who will be available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to respond to complaints or concerns that arise at the property. The property manager will be able to arrive on-site within thirty minutes of receiving a complaint or concern. The operations plan provides addresses and contact phone numbers for the nearest fire station, hospital, and twenty four hour clinic. The Cypress fire station, 25 is eight minutes away, and the community hospital of Monterey Peninsula is five minutes away. This information is also included in the informational notice to individuals staying at the property along with quiet hours and notification of emergency routes.

Additionally, condition of approval number three prohibits that the property prohibits property from hosting corporate or private private events unless the property has a separate entitlement for each use. The regulations for commercial vacation rentals allow up to 118 commercial vacation rentals to be approved in the Carmel area land use plan pursuant to title 20. This application will be the twenty second commercial rental approved in the Carmel area land use plan. An errata memo was was, was sent on Monday an errata memo was sent excuse me. An errata memo was sent on Monday, May 11 to update the operations plan, and it was distributed to the zoning administrator and interested parties.

And staff recommends that the zoning administrator approve the permit subject to the changes outlined in the errata memo. Therefore, staff recommends that the zoning administrator find the project categorically exempt from sequel guidelines section one five three zero one and approve a coastal development permit for commercial vacation rental operation use to allow the use of residential property for transient lodging for a period of thirty calendar days or fewer. This concludes staff's presentation, and staff is available for questions.

Thank you. Did have one question. Pretty sure it was this one. I looked at the the application materials that were attached to the resolution, and the site plan shows some new construction, I believe. And I'm just wanna make sure that maybe they just reused an old site plan that there's nothing there's no new construction proposed as part of this application?

Correct, sir. There is no new construction proposed as part of this application.

Okay. Thank you. I'd to open the hearing. Is the applicant present, please?

She is.

Good morning. Did you wanna, speak today? I don't know if you can hear us, but your connection is terrible, and we can't make out a word you're saying. So

I'm sorry.

That's better.

Hold on a second.

Whatever you just did. Thank you.

It's better? Okay. Alright. Well, I'm using Internet at work, so it might not be very good. Well, just wanted to just wanted to say that we used to live at this property, and that we still actually know a lot of our neighbors there. So we share many of the same concerns that the public and the county have about vacation rentals. It's our priority that the operations there is responsible, and it doesn't have any negative impact on our neighbors. And that's still gonna be our top priority going forward. Our property manager have done a great job helping us achieve this so far, and I have faith that they'll continue to make that a top priority. And, yep, that's all I have to say. Thanks for your time.

Did you have did you wanna state your name for the record?

Oh, yeah. Sure. I said it earlier, but you probably didn't hear me. My name is Andrea Ruset, and I own the property with my husband. And I was just saying that we used to live at this property for several years. So it's, and we still visit from time to time. So it's not just like an investment or a vacation rental per se, but, you know, we really love Monterey County, and we are we hope that we can continue to open our homes to other families with small children because as, you know, parents, we know that it's very difficult to stay in a hotel when you're going on vacation with kids. So thanks for your time.

Thank you. And have you read the conditions of approval recommended by staff, and are they acceptable?

Yes.

Alright. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak on this application?

Just wanted to thank staff for all their time and effort, put together and, assisting us through the application process.

Are you managing this property as well then? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak on this application on Upper Trail in Carmel? Seeing none, I'll close the hearing. Steph, do have anything else to add? No, sir. Thank you. So it'll be my decision to find that the project is categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act and approve the coastal development permit for commercial vacation rental with some with the errata recommended by staff and some non substantive changes to the resolutions.

With that, the project is approved. Thank you. Our next agenda item is other matters. We don't have any, so we will adjourn at 10:22.

Good thing I didn't say if we get out here

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eleven, I'm buying everybody