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CRA News January 2002
Selected articles from the newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association
 Chief of Police George Rawson |
 City Administrator Rich Guillen |
CRA Meeting -- What's new in Carmel?
| Thursday, January 25 -- CRA Meeting | |
| 4:45 p.m. -- Chief of Police George
Rawson & City Administrator Rich Guillen Vista Lobos Meeting Room, Torres between 3rd & 4th Following the meeting, delicious hot and cold hors d'oeuvres |
|
A high-powered city duo will share the platform at CRA's Jan. 24 meeting.
New Police Chief George Rawson, who took over on Nov. 1, is becoming a well-known fixture around Carmel, walking the streets, meeting business owners and riding a bike through town. Chief Rawson is looking forward to meeting our members and sharing his vision of Carmel's police and the changes he is contemplating.
City Administrator Rich Guillen will fill us in on the Local Coastal Plan, the proposed Business Improvement District, issues involving Carmel Beach and everything in between. Come with all those questions which have been on your mind and Rich and the Chief will be happy to give you answers.
The 14th annual Citizen
of the Year Celebration will be held in the Scout House on Sunday, Feb.
10, at 3:30 p.m. Delicious hors d'oeuvres will be served. There is no
charge for the event.
If you know a worthy recipient for this prestigious and highly-coveted
award, please write a letter by Feb. 1 to:
Citizen of the Year Selection Committee
P.O. Box 13
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA 93921
In making your nomination, please consider these guidelines:
| 1. | The candidate has through his or her service enhanced the lives of citizens of Carmel-by-the-Sea. |
| 2. | The candidate has fostered the ideals of Ordinance 96, which states, in part, that Carmel should remain "primarily, essentially and predominately a residential city ..." |
| 3. | The candidate is a resident of Carmel-by-the-Sea or its sphere of influence. |
| 4. | Any person or organization may make a nomination. Nominees do not have to be members of the CRA. |
| 5. | Please include with your letter all related background material you can find on the nominee, including his or her activities and contributions to Carmel-by-the-Sea. |
Previous Citizens of the Year are Jim Wright, Joyce Stevens, Enid Sales, Jack Billwiller, Skip Lloyd, Noel Mapstead, Clayton Anderson, Roy Thomas, Jean White, Bob Kohn, Linda Anderson, John Hicks, Noel Van Bibber and Jim Holliday.
President's Message
by Monte Miller
This seems like a good time to look
back at the first half of our fiscal year and forward to 2002. We had
some excellent, standing-room-only programs. Melanie Billig provided us
with Dr. Knox Mellon, Executive Director of the State Historical Preservation
Office, and Peter Douglas, Coastal Commission Executive Director, and
Linda Anderson brought MIIS Prof. Glynn Wood, Afghanistan expert. In addition
we had our own CRA speaker extraordinaire--Howard Skidmore (Famous
People Who Have Met Me). It will be difficult to match these winners
in 2002.
Some of the highlights of our year to date:
A successful CRA membership poll provided valuable direction for the Board.
The Council passed the Design Traditions Ordinance on which many of our
members spent long years working. The CRA Board also spent a lot of effort
at public hearings in support of this ordinance and related guidelines.
The Board put in many hours reviewing the Local Coastal Plan (LCP) and
provided written and oral input during the public hearings held by the
Planning Commission and the City Council. The LCP draft was approved by
the City Council in December. However, the city suffered a setback when
the Mayor and council (with the exception of Barbara Livingston) voted
to allow homeowners to rent both their main house and their subordinate
unit. This could mean more absentee landlords for unsuspecting neighbors.
(See editorial.) Many of our members spoke against
this action, including former Mayor Ken White. The board also has concerns
about the Historic Preservation Ordinance and Element. (See related
article by Jim Wright.)
A very successful fundraiser with the Carmel Business Association netted
$9,000 for the Sunset Center project. Melanie Billig was CRA's chairperson.
Festive social events were well attended--a catered dinner and musical
at the Forest Theater, the Stillwater Cove twilight barbecue and dinners
at Lincoln Court, Anton and Michel and Nico after general meetings, thanks
to the "Dines Out" committee, Marv Silverman, Mark Christensen and Regine
Godfrey. The holiday gala committee, chaired by Laurel Whorf with Diane
Flanders, Mary Pankonin and Marv Silverman, also deserve our thanks for
winding up the year with a smashing party at La Playa.
Coffees for new members initiated this year were very popular and will
continue periodically. Once a year, in addition to their monthly work,
the beach cleanup crew marches (and chants) in the parade under the direction
of Clayton Anderson. And of course we must not forget the CRA News,
which is not only mailed to all members, but distributed at the Post Office
for public information. Produced by Linda Anderson, the newsletter features
articles on key issues facing Carmel as well as upcoming events. It continues
to be a source of great pride to our organization. Shirley Humann and
her crew are owed a vote of thanks for their faithful labeling and mailing
of the newsletter each month.
These are a few highlights, but on to the future. Our January 24th meeting
is described above. In February we have the Citizen
of the Year program at the Scout House. See article
on how to nominate a worthy Carmel citizen for this prestigious award.
On February 28, our voter forum for candidates in Carmel's April election,
moderated by the League of Women Voters, will give residents a chance
to hear the candidates and question them on issues facing our city.
We urge you all to attend monthly City Council meetings as well as commission
meetings which interest you, where vital issues affecting our city are
decided. We need your support and participation. Over the next several
months, there will be opportunities to respond to the Coastal Commission
on our Local Coastal Plan. We will alert you.
I also urge you to accept tasks when called upon by CRA committee chairs
as we work to accomplish our goal of keeping Carmel a desirable place
for residents, business owners and visitors. Thanks for your continuing
support and have a happy new year.
Carmel's Historic Preservation Program
by Jim Wright
Why has preservation become
such a hot topic in Carmel? Part of the answer lies in the ever-increasing
number of demolitions being approved by the city. Consider this--in
the 5 years from 1992 to 1996, a total of 24 demolitions were approved.
The next 5 years, however, saw this total more than quadruple to 98
demolitions, with 28 occurring in just the year 2000. Since the city
doesn't have an approved Local Coastal Program, that means that each
one of these demolitions must also be approved by the Coastal Commission,
which has become increasingly vocal about the perceived failure of the
city to properly protect its coastal resources as required by the Coastal
Act.
Some of these demolitions have arguably involved historic structures
protected under California's Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). When
this was litigated, the court put the city on notice that it must carefully
consider the cumulative effect that these demolitions are having
on the special character and cultural heritage of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
What is the solution? The City Council hopes that a revised Preservation
Program, submitted as part of the Local Coastal Program, will be approved
by the Coastal Commission and therefore future demolitions can be approved
by the city without further review by the Commission.
The Preservation Ordinance Program consists of a Historic Context Statement,
a Preservation Element to be added to the General Plan, an Implementing
Ordinance that revises the zoning code and an Inventory of Historic
Resources based on a survey conducted during the past year.
The Context Statement contains specific sections and information required
by the Secretary of the Interior and is intended to provide a framework
for identifying historic resources, determining their relative significance
and applying the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic
Places. The Statement organizes the development of Carmel-by-the-Sea
into five broad themes: Prehistory and Hispanic Settlement (1542-1846);
Economic Development (1846-1940); Government, Civic and Social Institutions
(1903-1940); Architectural Development (1903-1940); and the Development
of Arts and Culture (1904-1940). The types of properties associated
with each theme and their significance are described in general terms.
The Historic Preservation Element sets forth in broad terms the goals,
objectives and policies adopted by the City Council with respect to
the identification and preservation of Historic Resources within Carmel-by-the-Sea.
In its review of this document, the State Office of Historic Preservation
commented that it "reads like a plan on how to 'deal' with historic
preservation, not how to preserve historic properties."
The Preservation Ordinance implements the General Plan Historic Preservation
Element. Its stated purpose, in part, is to "safeguard the heritage
of the city by preserving resources that reflect its cultural heritage
or which provide this and future generations examples of the physical
milieu in which past generations lived." To what extent this premise
will actually be achieved by the ordinance has frequently been questioned
in correspondence and public hearings during the past several months.
The various sections of the ordinance provide for: 1) Establishment
of a Historic Preservation Board; 2) Criteria for identification of
Historic Resources; 3) Establishment of an Inventory and Register of
Historic Resources including Districts; 4) Incentives and Benefits for
Registered Property; 5) Procedures for Review of Alterations and Demolitions;
and 6) Program Monitoring and Maintenance.
It is important to note that all historic resources must meet the criteria
for listing on either the California or National Registers. Two categories
are established: Primary and Local Historic Resources. Primary Resources
are significant at a statewide, national or international level. Local
Historic Resources meet the criteria for listing on the California Register
at a local or regional level of historic or cultural significance. Primary
Resources are placed on the Carmel Register by action of the City Council
in a public hearing. Local Historic Resources can be placed on the Carmel
Register by the Historic Preservation Board only after an application
has been initiated by the property owner.
Except in unusual circumstances, no exterior alteration or demolition
will be authorized that would diminish the integrity of a registered
historic structure or conflict with the Secretary of the Interior's
Standards for treatment of Historic Properties. So why would a property
owner choose to register his property? Obviously, if the owner intends
to demolish the structure and construct a new building, he would not
request registration. If, however, his plans for alterations could be
designed to meet the Secretary's standards, the owner could have all
fees for building permits and planning applications waived. The owner
could also be permitted to have exceptions to the Building Code, zoning
design standards or design non-conformities as well as other incentives
through state or federal programs.
The last element of the city's Preservation Program is the Historic
Resources Survey which identified 8 properties as Primary Historic Resources
and 215 properties as Local Historic Resources. Documentation has been
completed on approximately 1/3 of the properties. The City Council has
final approval of the Inventory and registration of Primary Resources.
Registration of Local Historic Resources can be approved by the Historic
Preservation Board upon application of the property owner.
How successful will the city's Preservation Program be in achieving
its stated objectives? The Environmental Impact Report prepared by the
city planning staff is not optimistic in this regard as it concludes
that the program would not avoid inappropriate alterations or
demolitions of Local Historic Resources identified in the inventory
but not voluntarily registered. Clearly, developers and speculators
who purchase property with identified historic resources will not be
deterred from demolition.
There is hope, however, that many homeowners will come to recognize
that a well-maintained and documented historic treasure on their property
will not only enhance their own property values but also that of the
entire community.
Needless pine needles needle city crews!
Recent
winter storms have prompted Assistant City Administrator Greg D'Ambrosio
to make a plea to residents and their gardeners: "Please do not
sweep your pine needles into the street. It is impossible for the
street sweepers to pick them up and, unless removed, they clog the
storm drains." Street workers need to spend their time cleaning
drains rather than picking up after residents.
The city has developed a very successful recycling program, including
98-gallon yard-waste containers for which all residents are
already paying. So, if you don't have such a container, call USA Waste
of California at 384-5000 and they will deliver one to you at no extra
cost. Use of these containers is helpful to the city because it increases
the percentage of its recycled material. If you put needles in your
regular trash cans, they will go into the land fill and not be recycled.
Beach Cleanup
Saturday, January 26
10 a.m. - noon
* Volunteers meet at
foot of Ocean Avenue
* Please bring gloves
* Coffee and pastries served courtesy of Caffe Cardinale and Carmel
Bakery
Lisa Panetta, left, discusses the day’s "Senior
Calling Seniors" list with volunteer Bill Gerber, who is also a long-time
CRA member. CRA board member [now on a leave of absence] Lou Ungaretti,
right, holds a check from the Carmel Residents Association.
CRA donates $200 to Police Department Program for Seniors
The Carmel Residents Association has
regularly made donations to worthy city departments and programs, totaling
$52,451. Its latest is a $200 contribution to the "Seniors Helping Seniors"
program. According to CRA President Monte Miller, "Our board is
impressed with and touched by this warm, human city program which brightens
the lives of Carmel's senior citizens."
Established in 1987 by the Carmel-by-the-Sea Police Department, the program
is coordinated by Community Services Officer Lisa Panetta, the
epitome of a caring, dedicated public employee. Each morning a senior
citizen arrives at the Police Department and begins making calls to some
17 seniors who live alone or are shut-ins with little or no interaction
with family or friends. The contact not only cheers the recipients' days
but serves as a safety net. If no one answers, a police officer is dispatched
to the person's home for a welfare check.
And, there is more! Social events occur throughout the year, as well as
birthday cards and small presents. Recently Lisa Panetta held a Christmas
luncheon at her home--on her day off--doing all the cooking herself. She
is planning a spring party for her seniors using the CRA gift.
If you are interested in making calls, if you live alone in Carmel-by-the-Sea
and would like to receive a daily call or if you would like to make a
financial contribution, please call Lisa Panetta at the Police Department,
624-6403. This program is funded solely by donations from the community
and would not exist without the generosity of interested Carmelites.
OLD CARMEL
by Connie Wright
Mary DeNeale Morgan --
"horse and buggy artist"
M. DeNeale Morgan, as she signed her
work, was one of Carmel's distinguished plein air painters--a generous
spirit who worked tirelessly for various Carmel civic groups. Her mother's
family emigrated from Scotland to the Monterey area in 1856, homesteading
a ranch near Point Piños and then in the Salinas Valley. It was partly
because of her family's stories about the beauty of the Monterey Peninsula
that DeNeale Morgan came here to live and work.
Born in San Francisco in 1868, she was taken to Oakland in 1872, where
the painter and teacher William Keith was her first teacher. She was precocious.
In 1886 she enrolled in the California School of Design in San Francisco
and studied with Emil Carlsen and Amédée Joullin until 1890. She paid
her first visit to Carmel in 1903. In 1910 she returned to buy the studio
and home of the late Sydney Yard, located next to what is now the Cypress
Inn on Lincoln. From then on through the 1940's, her studio was filled
with tourists, buyers, other artists and friends. The building, ever expanding
with new rooms and more paintings, became a meeting place for civic activists.
Her style was her own, sometimes containing elements of the Barbizon School,
sometimes tonalist or California impressionist, but always distinctly
her own, usually in vivid color with broad, bold strokes, sometimes laid
on with a palette knife. When pressed to say what school of painting she
belonged to, she replied that she was a "horse and buggy artist." She
refused to be typed. Her favorite subject was the Monterey cypresses.
When asked if she didn't tire of that subject, she replied that she "would
stick by her cypress trees till they sink into the sea, or--what is just
as tragic and final--be hopelessly built-around."
In 1915, she won a Silver Medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition
in San Francisco; in 1928 she was selected by Scribner's Magazine as one
of the nation's foremost women artists. She rarely travelled outside Carmel,
never outside the U.S., but had one-woman shows in San Francisco, New
York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
A community activist, she was a member of the Save the Dunes Committee,
which met in her studio to oppose a developer's plan for a big tourist
hotel at the foot of Ocean Avenue. Morgan, Fred Bechdolt and Talbert Josselyn
were selected from the group of forty to approach Frank Devendorf about
buying the property. "Devy" agreed to sell the 15 acres to the city for
the grossly undervalued price of $15,000. The voters agreed to spend the
money and the developer was stymied.
DeNeale Morgan was also an original member of the Forest Theater, for
which she designed sets. Wearing her distinctive purple cloak, she was
active with the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, the forerunner of the Carmel
Art Association. During World War I, she was the director of the Carmel
Summer School of Art, an offshoot of the Art and Crafts Club. It was she
who invited William Merritt Chase, distinguished New York artist and teacher,
to teach at the Summer School, greatly increasing Carmel's reputation
as an art center, both here and on the East Coast. She was a founding
member of the Carmel Art Association and of All Saints' Church, where
she attended communion services every morning at 8 o'clock. During World
War II, service men who were stranded in Carmel on Saturday nights could
always find a bed in her studio and breakfast the next morning. Every
Thursday afternoon she cut out portrait silhouettes--upwards of four hundred--for
patients at the Fort Ord Hospital.
She always painted on location so that she could capture the light, color
and mood of her subject. DeNeale Morgan died on Oct. 10, 1948, at the
age of 80. Four days before, she was at Point Lobos painting a cypress.
After her death, the unfinished canvas was hung in her studio. Brother
Cornelius, William Keith's biographer, wrote in Morgan's copy of his book:
"To Miss DeNeale Morgan, master painter of the strange form, color and
texture, the weather beaten toughness, the ancient fantastic weirdness,
in a word, of the truth of our beloved Monterey cypresses ..."
Our Favorite Places
Two ideas for late Christmas or New Year presents
Cottage Society Calendar
Suzanne Paboojian still has a few of the Carmel Cottage Society's
charming 2002 calendar. It features the pen and ink drawings of Jack
Prentice, whose Cottage of the Month is seen in the Pine Cone. The
cottages of past CRA presidents Shirley [and Hank] Humann
and Mary [and Bob] Condry are included. These "cottage-sized"
8 x 5 1/2 inch calendars are only $5. If you are interested, call Suzanne
at Burchell House Properties, 626-5045.
Historic Video of Sunset Center
"A Century at Sunset, 1901-2001" is a new 35-minute video produced by
Emmy award winner Lamont Johnson which chronicles Sunset Center's
history from a one-room school house to the Cultural Center of Carmel.
As of press time, the video is on sale for $20 at Carmel-by-the-Sea City
Hall, the Monterey County Symphony, Bach Festival and Sunset Center offices
and the Carmel Valley Roasting Co. on Ocean Ave. at Lincoln. All proceeds
from the sale of the video go to the Sunset Theater Renovation Project.
Checks should be made payable to the "Campaign for Sunset" and are tax
deductible.
Need electronic repairs?
Steve Brooks writes, "I just had my stereo repaired again and I like this person so much I thought I'd share it with the CRA membership. If your TV, VCR, stereo or any other electronic gadget is malfunctioning, go see "Nir" at Ocean Electronics, 301 Ocean Avenue, Monterey (373-4946). He is competent, reasonable and quick. I highly recommend him." [This column normally covers local businesses only unless, as in this case, there is no longer such a business in Carmel.]
General Store-gone to the dogs!
Attention all dog lovers! The General Store-Forge in the Forest patio, 5th and Junipero, is now a favorite gathering spot for people with well-behaved dogs. Each pet is given a clean bowl of water, yummy dog biscuits plus the "Dog Pound" menu sporting such delicacies as a Hot Diggity Dog or a Quarter Hounder. Now employee-owned and managed by Donna Rock, with excellent human food, too, this always-popular Carmel restaurant has become even more beloved by local dog owners.
So you want to write a book ...
The Carmel Public Library Foundation will present a free program from 7 - 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18, at Harrison Library. Authors Nancy Baker Jacobs, J.S. Holliday and Jerry McCaffery will discuss the inspiration, pain, challenge and success of writing books. Tickets are available at the library's checkout desk. Seating is limited.
Remember that your City Council is on T.V.
City Council meetings
are taped and re-broadcast
Sundays, 8 a.m. - 12 noon on
KMST Channel 26
