After listening to three hours of testimony, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday postponed a decision on a plan to build a motel-residence at Highway 1 and Old Creek Road on the southern outskirts of Cayucos. The board told developer Franco DeCicco to go back and redesign the project, which he calls Cayucos Del Mar. It’s slated to come back to the board on Oct. 28. Supervisors want the developer to work on the mass and height of the building, which calls for four residential units and 18 motel rooms. They said it was out of character with the neighborhood. The proposed back wall facing homes across Orville Street was both too tall and too massive, supervisors said. Supervisor Jerry Lenthall’s motion said the building can go to 30 feet so long as the third floor is set farther back from the street. The vote was 4-1, with Supervisors Katcho Achadjian, Harry Ovitt and Jim Patterson joining Lenthall, and Bruce Gibson opposed. DeCicco has already made several changes, dropping a café and small market. The Planning Commission in July told him that the three-story part of his proposal is too high. When the panel limited him to 22 feet, he appealed. The property is at the site of an abandoned commercial structure that has gone through several incarnations, including a gas station. It now is a weed-covered lot and abandoned structure. Dozens of Cayucos residents spent nearly three hours commenting on the proposal, speaking well into the evening. The bulk of them savaged it, claiming that it would create noise and traffic, harm views and endanger local creeks. They also said it didn’t account for pedestrian traffic and parking for motel residents, including truckers. Mostly, however, residents complained about the size of the would-be motel-residence. They said it was out of character with what one called “the last of the genuine beach towns,” and another characterized as “small and quaint.” Another critic said that Cayucos Del Mar would be the first thing visitors would see when they enter the town from the south and would so offend them that they would keep driving and not go downtown. However, DeCicco had supporters, some of whom called the opponents “emotional” people saying misleading things. One supporter said the property has been an eyesore for 20 years, and the county should accept a tax-paying enterprise. Stan House noted that DeCicco came to the United States decades ago and has played by the rules. He said DeCicco’s plan falls within zoning laws. Gibson conceded that DeCicco had played by the rules, but added that “it doesn’t really matter where the project comes from.” What matters, he said, is whether it fits the character of the neighborhood, and as proposed, he felt DeCicco’s Cayucos Del Mar did not. |
