Hearst Tries Softer Sell on Coastal Project

Hearst Corp. formally unveiled its new, more conciliatory plan Thursday to build a long-stalled resort along a windswept stretch of the Central Coast--a plan that immediately drew a familiar chorus of skepticism.

“The Hearst project is really unchanged from what it has always been,” said Doug Buckmaster, a spokesman for Friends of the Ranchland. “What’s changed is the tack they are taking. It’s smoother.”

About 300 people, many carrying “Protect our Coast” signs, crowded into a state Coastal Commission meeting Thursday to hear the giant media firm’s plans for its property on San Simeon Point near the landmark Hearst Castle. The property is one of the last unspoiled sections of California’s 1,100-mile coastline.

Although details of the proposal for a 650-room hotel, golf course and riding stables are virtually the same as a plan rejected by the Coastal Commission in 1998, company officials emphasized that the firm’s approach has changed.

For one thing, said Hearst Corp. executive Stephen T. Hearst, the company is offering to sell its development rights on the rest of the company’s 83,000 acres near Hearst Castle in exchange for the right to build on 257 acres. That would permanently preserve one of the largest single chunks of privately owned land remaining on the coast.

Hearst said the company has shed its past hard-line refusal to compromise in the hope that opponents also might be willing to look for common ground.

“We’re here today to work with all the stakeholders to find something that works for Hearst Ranch and the local community,” Hearst told the commission.

Officially, the commission was not considering the Hearst plan, and commissioners took no position on it Thursday. Instead, the board was reviewing a proposed blueprint for north Central Coast preservation. It’s an effort that could dramatically affect the Hearst property--especially language the commission wants to include preventing any development visible from Highway 1. San Simeon sits along the highway.

As a result, Hearst officials were at the Embassy Suites Hotel conference room in force, along with the curious, the angry and the confused.

“We want to see the details of the Hearst plan, for the devil is always in the details,” said Susan Jordan, a board member of the League for Coastal Protection.

As for Hearst statements that the company is offering to preserve thousands of acres in exchange for the right to build on less than 1% of its holdings, she replied: “They keep saying it’s a fraction of 1%. But it’s the most important 1%. It’s San Simeon Point,” she said.

Observers repeatedly questioned the lack of specificity in the plans. The media corporation has not said how much it wants in exchange for its development rights, though some local activists have suggested that it could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Roger Lyon, a San Luis Obispo County attorney who represents Hearst, said the Hearst project has been greeted with “wary optimism” by some community members.

“We’re just trying to build some mutual trust,” Lyon said. To that end, Hearst officials have been quietly meeting with local environmental groups and county officials.

But Jordan’s rejoinder was that environmentalists worry about a project that Hearst has been unwilling to describe in detail.

“Until they tell us what the plans are, we obviously can’t sign off on it,” she said.

The Coastal Commission report is highly critical of past preservation efforts by San Luis Obispo County, saying the local coastal plan does not go far enough to protect view sheds and agricultural open space.

Commission officials have not indicated when they will act on the coastal plan.