Golf Course Plan at Pebble Beach Delayed by Panel : Land use: The Coastal Commission orders that memberships at the golf course be held up until an appeal by a Monterey resident can be evaluated.

Pebble Beach Co.’s plan to sell memberships in a new private club at the legendary coastal golf course has been temporarily thwarted by a Monterey resident’s appeal to the California Coastal Commission.

The commission has ordered the company not to implement its plan until the panel can decide whether the appeal merits consideration.

Carl Larson, a 68-year-old retiree in Monterey, said Thursday that he challenged the plan because he believes that it ultimately will vastly reduce the public’s access to the rugged, scenic stretch of Central Coast on which Pebble Beach lies.

“In my opinion . . . any change in the intensity of use is development under the Coastal Act” and requires an amendment to the law or a permit under the current land-use plan, said Larson, who for several years represented the Sierra Club in coastal issues.

“The item will be initially heard in September and may be continued to the October hearing in Monterey,” said Diane Landry, a staff attorney in the commission’s Santa Cruz office. The commission is scheduled to meet Sept. 10-13 in Marina del Rey and Oct. 8-11 in Monterey.

In a statement, Pebble Beach Co. noted that its attorneys have previously said it is their opinion that the Coastal Commission has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Pebble Beach Co.’s membership proposal was approved 4-1 by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on July 9 after weeks of controversy over what would happen to public access at the famous golf links at the edge of the Del Monte Forest on the Monterey Peninsula. Larson said he was the only person at the hearing to oppose the plan.

Under the proposal, members could reserve starting times at Pebble Beach as much as five years in advance when they book one of 60 reserved rooms at the Pebble Beach Lodge or the company’s nearby Inn at Spanish Bay. Two hours of prime mid-morning tee times would be set aside for members.

Pebble Beach Co. officials have said they have no intention of making the course totally private. Instead, Japanese golf tycoon Minoru Isutani, who bought Pebble Beach and related properties last September for an estimated $830 million, simply views membership sales as a way to raise needed cash to pay off his hefty debt.

The Pebble Beach statement noted that the program provides an hour of advance reservation time daily for the general public, which will also continue to have the ability to reserve available starting times on the day before play. Greens fees are $200 or $175 for lodge guests.

The proposal for a private Pebble Beach National Club was formally put forth in April after several weeks of speculation in the Japanese and the U.S. press that heavy use by members could squeeze out other golfers. Newspaper reports said Isutani was considering selling hundreds of memberships in Japan at the “exorbitant” price of $740,000 each.

In July, Pebble Beach Co. President Tom Oliver said no more than 1,500 memberships would be marketed in Japan, the United States and elsewhere, at a cost of less than half the “rumored amount.”

Larson, a former marketing manager for a small forest products company turned environmentalist, said he played golf until 20 years ago, when “pollens drove me off the course.”