Helping Our Peninsula's Environment

Pebble Beach Company Forest Destruction, Golf Course & Mansion Project Approved 5-0 by Monterey County Supervisors

 Yesterday, to no one's surprise, Billionaire Clint Eastwood & Peter Ueberroth's Pebble Beach Company got another unanimous rubber stamp approval from Monterey County Supervisors.

Ignoring friendly but firm, advice from world experts Monterey County Supervisors once again flagrantly violated several laws, contradicted plain facts and sneered at science to approve yet another golf course and mansions project.

For example -- 

* Our Coastal Commission is a court recognized expert for applying our Coastal Act, but the Supervisors angrily rejected their warning that project is illegal (even though the EIR they adopted admits this).

* Dr. Hank Medwin, a world expert in acoustics, (Past President of American Acoustical Society, & author of world renowned acoustic text books) made some serious comments about major flaws with the noise portion of the Environmental Impact report, but the County anti-science "expert" ducked responding to his critical comments.

Next Step - Measure A and the project must go before our California Coastal Commission which has expressed serious concern about the bass-ackwards process Monterey County is forcing the project through and the County's failure to recognize and protect highly endangered habitats.

 The project will admittedly --

Oh, and by the way - it will fester permanent gridlock on our Holman Highway, hindering access to Pacific Grove's coast.

One feasible alternative is for Pebble Beach to purchase an Offsite Golf Course, but the County has refused to study it for the EIR.

Even though the project proposes offsite mitigation, Pebble Beach Co. employs offsite bussing of spectators for golf events from Ft. Ord, and Pebble Beach Co. already owns an offsite golf course in Monterey, and buying one would protect our forest and not impact our water supplies.

As you already know too well, the Supervisors and Scott Hennessey's so-called "Planning Dept." are hostile to our natural environment.

They smirk at science, lie about laws, flaunt false facts, and repudiate reason.

PBC lawyer Tony Lombardo offered a few new entries for next year's Ueberroth Whopper Award with "the vernal pool" which HOPE had just shown a photo of, "doesn't exist."

Lombardo went on to say "No vernal pools exist, not just here, but anywhere in Monterey County." (I hope the Endangered Species Act listed "Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp" who live at Fort Ord don't hear that; they might feel ignored.)

Not content to let Tony get such a head start in the next Whopper contest, Pebble Beach Company development co-ordinator Alan Williams weighed in with a poor echo of this year's Whopper winner saying "[Pebble Beach Company is] not in the developing business." Williams continued with "every question has been asked and answered in the Environmental document" even though Scott Hennessey's County "Planning" Dept arrogantly ignored hundreds (more likely thousands) of comments asking for the basis of the Environmental Impact Report's conclusions.

Supervisor Potter made a tiny ambiguous effort to suggest more protection for Monterey pine forest in the neighborhood of the vernal pool, but he voted for the project without making any motion to modify it.

 The sham hearing, where not one Supervisor spoke about environmentally benign alternatives was delightfully interrupted by the debut of the catchy song "Monterey Pine" by Pat Clark, of the Cachagua Playboys band who grew up in Pebble Beach.

 Today, the LA Times accurately reported HOPE's quote that the project is "a slow-motion ecological train wreck." The Herald report for this giant project, possibly the largest single project ever on our physical Monterey Peninsula, which was reported in the LA Times and USA Today - wasn't even on the front page.

 For more info please see -- www.1hope.org/pbc

 or call us at 624-6500 - today! 

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