The Ocean View Plaza project refuses to die. The notorious condo-and-retail development, planned for Cannery Row, has taken several seemingly fatal blows over the past dozen years, but, like a slasher-flick monster, it always comes back and slogs on.

Next week, the California Coastal Commission will get its shot at the project. It’s bound to be bloody.

Commission staffers have recommended that the panel deny Cannery Row Marketplace’s application for the Ocean View Plaza development. The 66-page staff report says a planned onsite desalination plant, which would provide drinking water for the project, is not consistent with the Coastal Act, “due to impermissible fill and dredging of ocean waters, as well as potential entrainment impacts due to a backup open ocean intake line.” It also says the desal technology may not be reliable, and the risks of it failing “are too high to support approval of the project.”

And despite its planned open space and stairway leading down to the rocky shore, the staff report says the proposal doesn’t provide sufficient public access, which is inconsistent with the state law.

The commission will vote on the project when it meets in Carmel Valley on Thursday, March 6.

During its long, contentious history, Ocean View Plaza has been the subject of three lawsuits and one ballot initiative. In 2004, the Monterey City Council approved the most recent version of the development: 51 condos, shops, restaurants, a community park, a history center, a desal plant and parking spaces on about 87,000 square feet.

Late last December, the council voted to send a letter supporting the project to the Coastal Commission. The letter highlights the proposal’s attributes, including graffiti cleanup, public access to the rocky shoreline, affordable housing, $2 million in road improvements along Lighthouse Avenue and a history center, which would be located in the rehabilitated San Xavier Fish Reduction Plant.

“There is no such thing as a perfect project, but I think that the applicants for this project have come a long ways towards meeting the Coastal Commission requirements for approval,” says Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala. “Right now, this piece of property is definitely a blight on Cannery Row. There are so many good aspects of this project that we are looking forward to.”

THE COMMISSION WILL CONSIDER THE OCEAN VIEW PLAZA DEVELOPMENT WHEN IT MEETS AT 9AM THURSDAY, MARCH 6 AT RANCHO CAÑADA GOLF COURSE, 4860 CARMEL VALLEY RD., CARMEL. 624-0111.