The pushback was evenly relentless and polite Monday evening as Carpinteria residents turned out in full force to roast the latest plan to develop the city's treasured bluffs. A crowd of people wearing matching green shirts, many of them veterans of past fights to preserve the open space, packed City Hall and spoke against the proposal for a 154-room hotel, 85 homes, a restaurant, and a golf course on 27 acres of oceanfront property between City Hall and the Venoco processing plant.
Equally as unenthused about the project were Carpinteria's City Council and Planning Commission, which hosted the special joint hearing as a preliminary show-and-tell from Beverly Hills–based developer Brad Hall and architect Brian Cearnal. They shared worries about environmental impacts, increased traffic, and obstructed views, and said the project runs contrary community's small town character.
"This doesn't seem like Carpinteria to me," said Vice-Mayor Fred Shaw, explaining the development felt isolated from the rest of the city and sits uncomfortably close to Venoco's oil operations. Commissioner Jane Benefield admonished the plan as a Stockholm Syndrome development that throws everything at the wall just to see what sticks. "Then with the stroke of a pen, you cut out half of the proposed buildings. That's not going to work here."