The Rosewood Miramar Beach Resort, approved after 15 years of community protests, recessionary woes, and changes in ownership, is set to break ground this spring. There’s just one problem: it needs an exemption from the water moratorium in Montecito.
To comply with fire regulations, the Miramar’s owner and developer, Rick Caruso, wants to install larger water lines at the beachfront property at 1555 S. Jameson Lane. So, he is asking the Montecito Water District to replace three of the Miramar’s five existing water meters with larger meters and install a bigger service line – at no cost to the district.
In February, 2014, as the drought deepened, the district declared a water shortage emergency and stopped processing all applications for new water service. Larger meters are off-limits. With the exception of Caruso, no one has applied for any.