Carmel Voters Ready for Showdown Over Tourism : Politics: To opponents of commercialism, former Mayor Clint Eastwood is the bad guy in rezoning battle. He says new businesses and tax revenue are needed to support the high level of services.

It is not at all like in his movies. Here in this quaint seaside village, Clint Eastwood has lots of little rules to follow.

In the modest commercial building he owns, the tough-guy actor can rent space to a clothing store--but not to a T-shirt shop. He could bring in an artist--but not an art gallery. He could open a grocery store--but not one that sells take-out food.

It is all part of tiny Carmel’s effort to maintain its village character in the face of a daily onslaught of tourists.

Now Eastwood, who gave up being mayor of Carmel five years ago, has emerged as the major backer of a new proposal to soften the town’s anti-business attitude.

Voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve the rezoning measure that would lift many restrictions on downtown businesses and allow them to cater more directly to tourists.

Long a champion of the local business community, Eastwood has donated nearly $42,000 to promote the measure--more than three-quarters of all money raised on both sides. That works out to more than $10 for each registered voter.

Eastwood’s foes say the measure would benefit him personally by allowing him to lease his two-story building--now nearly half empty--to a broader variety of tenants. But he maintains that his interest is in helping the town, not himself.

“It won’t have any benefit to me, one way or the other,” he said from Texas, where he is making a movie.

The rezoning measure was approved by the City Council last fall, but angry residents circulated petitions and forced the issue onto the ballot in Carmel’s first referendum in 25 years.

They contend that the rezoning plan would strip the village of its charm and attract more of the tourists who park in residential neighborhoods and crowd the city’s sidewalks all summer long.

Known as Measure H, the referendum has brought to a boil nearly 10 years of simmering animosity between anti-growth advocates and downtown merchants. At times, the campaign has erupted into hostility--a sort of tradition in Carmel’s small-town politics.

“It wouldn’t be Carmel if we didn’t have this kind of conflict,” said Reba Slate, a longtime resident who manages a tea shop in the Eastwood Building.

Opponents of rezoning say the election will decide what kind of place this town of 4,440 people will be: a commercial tourist trap ruled by greedy landlords or a quiet community that serves the interests of its residents.

“I don’t want merchants doing whatever they please--it cheapens the commercial district,” said Al Eisner, former publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone and a leader of the opposition. “If you allow market forces to operate untrammeled, Carmel is going to turn into another beach tourist town.”

Measure H would give 17 commercial properties a higher level of zoning and give city staff more authority to grant business permits. And, in an apparent concession to anti-tourism sentiment, it would limit the number of jewelry stores to 32 and the number of T-shirt shops to 10--the numbers that exist today.

Advocates of the change say it is a matter of fairness: The measure would restore zoning rules that were in effect until 1984, when anti-growth forces took control of the City Council and downzoned part of the commercial district.

In fact, it was Carmel’s anti-growth philosophy--and the difficulty Eastwood had in getting his building approved in the first place--that prompted him to run for a two-year term as mayor in 1986. Many opponents of Measure H have been battling him since then. Eastwood says they are bitter that he won and they lost.

Eastwood argues that approval of the measure will bring in new businesses and tax revenue to support the high level of services Carmel residents expect.

The campaign has gotten personal, with Eastwood accusing Eisner, his main foe, of moving back into Carmel specifically for the election. Eisner acknowledges that he moved into town in December from nearby Carmel Valley, but counters that Eastwood is “just another greedy landlord as far as I’m concerned.”

City Councilwoman Barbara Livingston, an opponent of the ballot measure, accuses Eastwood of ruining Carmel by attracting a low grade of tourists who stay only long enough to buy Eastwood souvenirs.

“This (Measure H) is a very important decision for voters to make: Are they going to keep Carmel the way it is or give it away to the tourists?”