Depending on whom one asks, the California Coastal Commission either squandered Santa Cruz’s biggest tourism-boosting project in years or held the line on height limits in the city’s coastal zone. The commission—tasked with preserving 1,100 miles of coastline—voted 6-4 on Thursday, Aug. 11 not to change the city’s coastal plan to accommodate Barry Swenson Builder’s proposal to tear down the crumbling La Bahia Apartments and put in a 125-room condo-hotel. The much-anticipated hotel would have literally raised the roof—a full one-and-a-half stories above the city’s own four-story coastal limit. It’s an exception the agency wasn’t willing to overlook.
“I’m extremely disappointed in the Coastal Commission,” says Mayor Ryan Coonerty. “This was a good project.” Supporters say the plan to replace the 85-year-old complex would have created high-paying jobs, brought in tourists and raked in large tax revenues. Coonerty says he was particularly disappointed with Santa Cruz Commissioner Mark Stone, who sits on the commission along with representatives across the state. Stone never communicated any problems he had with the project prior to the meeting, says Coonerty.
Stone kept his position on the La Bahia private until Thursday. “I don’t see myself as an advocate just because I’m from this area and sitting on this commission,” Stone said at the meeting. He said he asked himself, “What would I do in any other community where this was proposed?”
