Pebble Beach Co. Changes Its Plan for Famous Forest

An end to the long Del Monte Forest wars on the Monterey Peninsula seemed at hand when Clint Eastwood and Peter Ueberroth unexpectedly showed up at a county supervisors’ meeting last month to announce the Pebble Beach Co. was dropping plans to build 300 luxury houses in the cherished pine woods.

But though development foes are thrilled at the decision, they aren’t packing away their pistols.

The Pebble Beach Co., owned in part by actor Eastwood and former baseball commissioner Ueberroth, still wants to build a new golf course and add scores of rooms to two existing luxury hotels. But it is also collecting signatures for a county ballot initiative to change zoning on a portion of the Del Monte Forest. The resort and real estate firm says its initiative would set aside more than 500 acres now designated as lucrative residential lots for conservation and recreation.

“We’re asking the public to rezone to a lesser use so they know it will never be changed,” said Alan Williams, a consultant for the Pebble Beach Co. who has worked on other projects for Eastwood.

But skeptics contend the proposal is not what it seems. “That makes everyone nervous,” said Janice O’Brien, who’s lived in the forest for more than three decades. “There is no guarantee in the initiative about forest protection.”

Local environmentalist Mary Ann Matthews said the initiative “is really a hard-headed business decision. It’s not environmental philanthropy.”

The forest, a gated, 5,300-acre woodland of native Monterey pines and pricey housing, is one of the best-known pieces of real estate in the world. It includes the 17 Mile Drive and enough picturesque scenes to fill a postcard stand.

Fights over its future have been going on for decades.

Last year, an investment group including Ueberroth, golf master Arnold Palmer and former Carmel Mayor Eastwood bought the corporation for $820 million. With the purchase came the Pebble Beach Golf Links and three other nearby courses, two luxury hotels--the Lodge at Pebble Beach and the Inn at Spanish Bay--17 Mile Drive and undeveloped portions of the forest.

The previous owners had proposed adding a golf course and 316 upscale houses to the area.

Early last month the Ueberroth group announced a much different plan: Build a golf course, sell 38 vacant residential lots, build 150 to 160 hotel rooms--all but 24 of which would be added to the lodge and inn. The remaining units would be two-bedroom cottages constructed on the new course.

Additionally, 60 units of employee housing would be built near the corporate offices.

“In the past the previous owners have been developers and the new owners are not developers,” Williams said. “They’re in the golf and hotel business.”

By opting for more luxury lodging over housing, the company is choosing an ongoing revenue stream over the one-shot profits from home sales. It is also getting rid of a proposal that had drawn considerable criticism.

“I had very significant concerns about the housing,” said Dave Potter, Monterey County supervisor and vice chairman of the state Coastal Commission. “It punched too many holes in the forest.”

The golf course would also take out Monterey pines, which are being attacked by pitch canker disease. It would be the eighth course in Pebble Beach and the 19th on the golf-obsessed peninsula.

“Those who care about the forest feel it’s really frivolous to be putting in golf courses in such an area,” O’Brien said.