CRA News January 2003

Selected articles from the newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association

Salvation Army volunteer bell ringer Diane Hydorn was pleased with a donation from Diane Flanders. Both are CRA members. The list of bell ringers at the Carmel Post Office includes many CRA members according to Don Carr, who coordinates the entire bell-ringing operation.

CRA Meeting -- News about Our County
An Update on the General Plan

The 15th annual Citizen of the Year Celebration will be held in the Scout House, Mission and 8th, on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 3:30 p.m. Delicious hors d'oeuvres will be served. There is no charge for the event.

After serving as master of ceremonies for 7 years, our own speaker extraordinaire, Howard Skidmore, is passing the baton to Carmel's former Chief of Police, Don Fuselier. The CRA owes a debt of gratitude to Howard for a job well done.

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:

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, Jim Holliday and Frankie Laney.

COUNCIL NOTES

With paid parking in a jam,
which way will the city turn?

At the Nov. 19 public meeting on paid parking, City Administrator Rich Guillen painted a bleak picture of Carmel finances unless a new stream of revenue arises. According to Guillen, "Without any new revenue enhancement programs and being a city of finite size and resources, we are on a course facing continual cutbacks to city services, personnel and infrastructure maintenance. To make matters more challenging, the State is likely to continue raiding local agency coffers and adopting unfunded mandates that will weaken the city's financial position and stability."

Councilmembers Gerard Rose and Barbara Livingston reiterated their opposition to the proposed parking program, which is estimated by the city to net $1,000,000 annually. Councilman Dick Ely, submitting a more conservative estimate, questioned the financial projections, saying that if he were forced to vote right then, he would vote no. Those comments, coupled with nearly universal opposition from residents and business owners, make the installation of downtown parking stations a fairly remote possibility.

Mayor Sue McCloud explained that the council would take no action on the paid parking plan until it had discussed the two other potential revenue sources on their list--a Business Improvement District (BID) and a Stormwater Utility District. The BID has been under discussion for over a year and currently a consultant hired by the city, along with a committee of business persons, is attempting to jump start the project and gain more acceptance among a reluctant business community. This concept, in our opinion, was brought forth by local innkeepers in order to keep the city from raising the hotel tax (TOT). (See related article below.) The $500,000 generated by the BID would be totally controlled by the business community and mostly allocated for tourist advertising. The only direct gain for the city budget would be if the $100,000 given annually to the Carmel Business Association for marketing were discontinued.

A stormwater utility, according to the journal Stormwater, "is essentially a special assessment district set up to generate funding specifically for stormwater management. Users within the district pay a stormwater fee and the revenue thus generated directly supports maintenance and upgrade of existing storm drain systems; development of drainage plans, flood control measures, and water-quality programs; administrative costs; and sometimes construction of major capital improvements."

Many cities are turning to this method to fund the state mandate for storm water management. Such a district must be voted upon by a supermajority of voters (66%). According to City Administrator Guillen, a Stormwater Utility District would generate $500,000, freeing up city funds previously allocated to stormwater activities as well as generating additional money to pay for their increasing cost.

Should Other Revenue Options
Also Be on the Table?

Consideration of a Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) increase seems to be untouchable. Any TOT increase goes directly into the general fund. When asked at the Nov. 19 meeting on paid parking why this revenue source was not on the table, City Administrator Rich Guillen replied that it wasn't a possibility because it had to be voted upon. But, when pushed, he agreed that the Stormwater Utility District (which is on the list of three possibilities) also requires a vote. Wouldn't voters actually be more willing to vote a tax for visitors than for themselves? Remember, Carmel voters didn't even support assessing themselves for ambulance service!

Councilwoman Paula Hazdovac, when the subject arose on Nov. 19, said flatly that the city can't raise the TOT because the innkeepers are already suffering. However, one longtime innkeeper, Clyde Sturges, disagreed, saying, "The City should be looking at raising the TOT."

A Dec. 12 article in the Wall Street Journal said that nationwide demand for hotel rooms is picking up but will not boost occupancy rates in 2003. Sept. 11, the recession and the threat of war in Iraq have hurt the industry. The recent $250,000 per room sale of the Colonial Terrace Inn and Sundial Lodge confirms, however, that the future outlook for this industry is clearly perceived to be bright.

The innkeepers would pay a large share of the BID and, under their proposal, pass it on to their customers. So, wouldn't that affect their room rates just as much? The difference seems to come down to who would control the money.

Each 1% increase in the TOT would generate approximately $375,000 for the city. An increase of 1% on a $200 hotel room would add $2 to the room rate. An increase of 2%, which would generate a whopping $750,000 for the city, would add an additional $4. The question is: would a visitor who can afford to pay the prevailing rate for a hotel room in Carmel not come if a few dollars were added? Here are some current TOT rates:

• Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey and Pacific Grove -- 10%
• Monterey County -- 10.5%
• Seaside -- 12%
• San Francisco -- 14%

President's Message
Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas (ESHA)

by Larry Rodocker

One of the most poignant TV commercials I've ever seen was that of an American Indian paddling a canoe on a river littered with human trash. As he looked, a tear filled his eye and ran down his cheek.

The subject of environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHA) may seem a bit dry, but, in reality, it is very important to us--so important that there is a required section within Land Use Plans (LUP). Carmel-by-the-Sea's LUP was presented Dec. 12, 2002, in San Francisco for public hearing and for California Coastal Commission review. (See related article below.)

An ESHA is defined in the Coastal Act as "any area in which plant or animal life habitats are either rare or especially valuable because of their special nature or role in an ecosystem and which could be easily disturbed or degraded by human activities and developments ..."

Carmel's LUP has identified ESHAs within the city in Mission Trails Park, Pescadero Canyon and Carmel beach, which include Monterey Pine forest, wetlands, riparian forests, coastal terrace prairie and special-status plants and wildlife species. The city has done its job in defining ESHA for Carmel and for providing protection as prescribed in the Coastal Act.

If this is the case, why haven't I left this subject alone and considered it complete? There has recently been and will continue, in all likelihood, to be efforts to dilute and weaken Carmel's ESHA ordinances for the purpose of development. This will destroy what makes the Monterey Peninsula special--the gifts of nature.

Man will never improve on nature, only destroy it through his selfishness and greed.

When you walk downtown, to the beach or in your neighborhood, look at the special beauty in the trees, wildflowers and wildlife. It is important for us to protect our ESHAs. We don't want to be like the Indian with tears in our eyes because we have allowed the destruction of our environment.

Library's winter art exhibition reception

The year's first Local History event will be a reception featuring an exhibit of Japanese prints at the Library's Park Branch on Monday, Jan. 27, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. These works, part of the permanent collection of the library, are from the Ella Reid Harrison Collection, including works from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. Early books from Mrs. Harrison's collection on Japan will also be on view. The exhibit will be open during Local History hours through March 14.

Need extra help at meetings?

Our city actively seeks to help people with major or minor disabilities. If you have trouble hearing at City Council meetings, assisted listening devices can be obtained from City Clerk Karen Crouch, who sits in the first seat on the left at the council dais.

Those who require assistance in order to attend and/or participate should call Karen Crouch's office at 620-2000 at least three days in advance to make necessary arrangements.

If you wish to testify at a meeting but can't get to the podium, Council Chambers is equipped with a portable microphone which can be brought to your seat. If you know in advance which item you would like to comment on, give Karen a call. City Hall also has a telecommunications device for the Deaf/Speech Impaired (T.D.D.). The number is 1-800-735-2929.

CRA PROFILES
by Howard Skidmore

Volunteer, travel, study -- They do it all!

Sherry and David Shollenbarger, active CRA members starting a year ago, are each enjoying a retirement that keeps them pleasantly challenged and which most people might agree is rather impressive.

Firstly, there is service to others. Sherry, a retired psychiatric nurse, volunteers at the Hospice of the Central Coast, where she has led a bereavement group. David, a retired general surgeon, volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club in Seaside, where he helps the youngsters with their grade-school homework and, he says, "restores order." David adds, "Unfortunately, our schools leave a lot of these kids behind. We volunteers are challenged and rewarded working with them. I learn more than I teach."

And there is involvement in local affairs. Sherry is a volunteer at Robinson Jeffers Tor House, leading tours. David's prime local interest--other golfers will understand--is his two or three rounds a week at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

At the head of this couple's to-do list are family matters. Sherry's father, William Powell--"Not the Thin Man movie actor," David says--is a retired U.S. Customs port director who moved here three years ago from Rochester, N.Y. His home is a stone's toss from Bohemian-era writer Mary Austin's landmark "wickiup" dwelling.

Son David II, 34, who traveled all over the world as a drummer with a rock band, now is with a Bay Area company that casts sculpture, including the bravura works of Monterey-Carmel artist Richard MacDonald. Daughter Maria, 32, lives in Manhattan, works for a web site, gloss.com, and is a writer of travel articles and features for magazines.

And then there is travel--Sherry and David try to get away for six weeks in the spring and the same in the fall to visit different parts of Europe. Their main interest is in studying the history and speaking the languages of France, Spain and Italy. Their daughter's three years of language study in Florence first gave them the "Europe bug," they say. As an adjunct to their travels, the Shollenbarger's here at home study French, Italian and Spanish with a "marvelous" woman tutor.

In addition to these activities, Sherry is an avid gardener, tending what she calls an English garden at their Carmel home not far from the Forest Theater.

The couple met at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn. David's route to that point was birth in Huntsville, Alabama, growing up in Ohio and graduation from Kenyon College. Sherry, born in Carthage, N.Y., completed nurse's training at Vanderbilt, then became the breadwinner for the couple, serving at the public health department while David finished medical school. When they moved on to the University of California at Los Angeles for David's residency, Sherry served at the university's Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Joining with two doctors who had been his teachers, David established practice in Santa Monica. Some 20 years ago, David and Sherry and three other golf-playing couples from the Los Angeles Country Club came to the Peninsula. The Shollenbarger's fell in love with the area, and for 14 years they maintained a place here. Four years ago they came to stay in retirement.

Both Sherry and David feel strongly that the most important issue locally is preserving the character of Carmel, which drew them here so many years ago. Besetting that character today are commercial pressures and the high ratio of home owners who vote and live most of the time elsewhere.

New Year's Resolutions
by Carmel Fire Department Captain Mitch Kastros

We all make New Year's resolutions that we may or may not live up to. A couple of practical resolutions are having your chimney and furnace cleaned and serviced. Chimneys that are used regularly should be cleaned once a year, and furnaces serviced every two years. Furnace filters need to be replaced (if disposable) or cleaned (if washable) at least twice a year. When changing your smoke detector batteries, also remind yourself to change or clean your furnace filters.

A lot of us have fireplaces with gas jets to ignite logs. The valve to activate the jets is usually found in the floor, adjacent to or in front of the fireplace. A removable key needs to be inserted into the valve to turn the gas on and off. When the gas if off, please remove the key to prevent the gas from accidentally and unknowingly being turned on.

If you cannot remember when your fireplace and furnace were last serviced, these should be priorities for everyone's safety and peace of mind. Licensed chimney sweeps (Chimney and Fireplace Cleaning and Repairing) and furnace service specialists (Furnaces-Heating; Sales and Service) can be found in the yellow pages.

Best wishes to everyone in the New Year, and always.

OLD CARMEL
by Connie Wright

Flanders Mansion and John Cunningham

The entrance to Flanders Mansion as approached by Hatton Road. When coming upon this unique edifice from the Mission Trails Park, one feels a delightful sense of discovery.

The most beautiful property that the City of Carmel owns is the Flanders Mansion or "Outlands," as the Flanders called it, and the surrounding park land, including the Lester Rowntree Native Plant Garden.

In 1839, Spain granted one league (three miles) to Manuel Lazaro, which contained what was to become the Flanders property. In 1859, after California became part of the United States, the novelist Gertrude Atherton's mother bought the land. Atherton's The Splendid Idle Forties describes the property. In 1925, the Carmel Land Company, of which Paul Flanders was the president, purchased the property from the estate of the Hatton family, the most recent owners. The Flanders Mansion served as a family residence as well as a prototype/model for the Hatton Fields subdivision. Henry Higbee Gutterson, one of the most famous of the "Bay area" architects, who collaborated with both Julia Morgan and Bernard Maybeck, designed the house and the gardens. Created during the Arts and Crafts period, Flanders is an excellent example of Gutterson's English country design. In 1972, the city of Carmel purchased the mansion and 14.9 acres of land from the Flanders estate for $275,000. In 1989 the mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Structures.

John Cunningham was born in New Jersey in 1904 of an artistic and literary family. In 1926 he came to Carmel, and in 1939 he became director of the Carmel Art Institute, where he taught for fifty years. In 1980, following a rent increase, he moved the Institute from the Golden Bough to the Flanders Mansion. There he taught until 1988 when he retired. Many of the present members of the Carmel Art Association were once his students. Now at the age of 98, "the grand old man of Carmel" lives in Carmel Valley. The Flanders Mansion is empty and the Carmel Art Institute exists only in a post office box.

The meadow adjacent to Martin Road was once the grazing place for Paul Flanders' horses. In 1918, Charles Saunders, who hiked through California, described its view: "Here at the hilltop, there branches dimly from the highroad a footpath which you may follow the rest of the way to Carmel, through idyllic ways, now beneath the pines and across the grassy glades where wildflowers twinkle. Through a rift in the wood you may see now and again the blue of the sea, and the breeze brings you the complaint of the distant surf."

The pathway which Saunders describes is the Mission Trail, the path followed in the 18th century by the Mission Fathers on the way to the Presidio or San Carlos Church in Monterey. Both the Carmel Mission and Point Lobos are also visible from the magnificent site.

Our Favorite Places

Lucy's -- a friendly place

Sue Jarman writes, "I just wanted to let you know I had a very pleasant Thanksgiving dinner and experience at Lucy's, on Dolores between Ocean and 7th. I joined a family of four and the owners and staff were extremely friendly and courteous. The food was excellent and the background music in perfect taste. The 'homey touch' was especially appreciated by all of us because of the nature of the occasion. "I am writing to tell you about this enjoyable dining experience because at this particular time of the year it is good to give thanks and I am grateful to Lucy's." [One of Lucy's owners is CRA member Midge Frick. Ed.]

5th Avenue Deli

Thanks to 5th Avenue Deli ... for graciously providing free coffee during the holiday season for volunteers ringing the Salvation Army bell at the Post Office. Owners Dan and Deb Beals make an enormous effort to ensure that their deli and catering company provides valuable service to locals and visitors alike. When you drop in for a visit, you will be tempted by the aroma of simmering soup as well as the wonderful supply of cheeses and meats for sandwiches. And, if you want something extra special for a friend or client, their gift baskets, which can be made to order, are sumptuous looking.

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