PG Hotel Once More?

On May 20, 1887, El Carmelo Hotel, later known as the Pacific Grove Hotel, opened for business on the site of the present Holman Building in downtown Pacific Grove. A short-lived venture, the hotel was dismantled in 1918 for lack of business and its lumber used to build the Lodge at Pebble Beach.

Developer Nader Agha is willing to bet that Pacific Grove’s tourism industry has improved over the last 87 years. If Agha has his way, the property, which is bordered by Lighthouse, Grand, Central and Fountain avenues, will return to its roots, and an upscale 300-room hotel will be built on the site of the parking lot below the original Holman Building.

Last week, a cardboard model of the proposed structure was available for public scrutiny during an informal “drop-in” open house at the Pacific Grove Community Center.

The model depicts a multi-story, v-shaped building with a central plaza facing the ocean. A pedestrian bridge linking the hotel to the original Holman Building is also proposed.

If built, the new structure would include more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space and street-level retail shops.

Like all new development in Monterey County, the project has a few hurdles to overcome before Agha can break ground. In addition to requiring at least 25 acre-feet of water, the hotel would require support from the local business community, the PG City Council and the public.

At press time, Agha could not be reached for comment. [RM]

Clean Streets, Clean Waters

When it comes to keeping coastal waters healthy, city dwellers need to watch what kind of pollutants are on our streets—and ultimately end up in the ocean via storm drains.

“All of us have a role to play,” says Rachel Saunders of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Pollution from urban runoff is a cumulative result of each person living next to the ocean.”

Saunders’ comments echoed the theme of Sanctuary Currents 2005: Tracking the Health of Our Sanctuary, a free, open symposium held March 12, at CSU-Monterey Bay.

The symposium focused on citizen water monitoring, a grassroots effort that Saunders says “is more and more important as budgets shrink and we have to fill the gap.”

In addition, the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network, a consortium of citizen monitoring groups, released the results from its October 2004 First Flush monitoring events.

First Flush refers to the first major storm event of the rainy season, during which there are sheets of water flowing on the roadways. In October, dozens of volunteers in seven Central Coast cities braved the elements to sample 23 storm drain outfalls that discharge into the sanctuary.

Common pollutants include motor oil, lawn fertilizers, pesticides, animal feces and trash, and come from people washing cars, changing motor oil, watering lawns and hosing off sidewalks.

This year, one surprising result was a high level of trace minerals such as copper and zinc appearing at Steinbeck Plaza in Cannery Row.

“We’re not certain where it’s coming from,” Saunders says. “We think things like brake pads, copper piping and galvanized roofing may be the culprits but we’re just beginning to sponsor studies on this.”

Also at the symposium, presenters unveiled the Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN), a new Web resource created to improve communication and avoid duplicate research among the more than 40 institutions and organizations currently examining various aspects of the sanctuary. SIMoN can be found online at www.mbnms-simon.org. [RM]