Proposed Shell Beach hotel needs some tweaks, Pismo planners say

A proposed hotel in Shell Beach can’t check in just yet: The Pismo Beach Planning Commission has postponed a decision until November to give more time for the property owner to shrink and refine the project.

“I’ve got some issues with it, even though it’s got so many aspects to it that are OK,” Commissioner Mark Naftal said during discussion Tuesday night. “So I’m kind of having mixed feelings on it.”

The project will come back before the commission on Nov. 22.

Strive Management is proposing a 37-room, two-story hotel on a half-acre lot at 2655 Shell Beach Road near Spyglass Park, with a 507-square-foot detached cafe/ice cream shop at the front. The project would include an underground parking lot, plus at-grade parking, for a total of 39 spaces.

The property is located in a relatively busy area of Shell Beach surrounded by residences and the Spyglass Village business center. That half-mile stretch of Shell Beach Road is also home to three other hotels: the 82-room Spyglass Inn, 70-room Dolphin Bay Resort & Spa and 160-room The Cliffs Resort.

Several commissioners noted concerns with the size of the hotel and whether it would block ocean views, as well as fears that its 39 parking spaces would not be sufficient to serve both the hotel and its detached cafe/ice cream shop.

Commissioner Kari Bhana, who lives in Shell Beach, was the only commissioner who outright opposed the project.

“I drive past this every day,” she said. “When this came up before us, I could not believe we were talking about the same property. And I couldn’t fathom how this was all going to fit on that tiny little lot. I still can’t.”

The commissioners asked Strive Management to come back with some alterations, including more parking, a refined design for the cafe and the back of the hotel to make it more appealing, a possible decrease in the number of rooms, and a larger buffer area between the hotel and the nearby riparian area.

Not among their concerns were the traffic worries expressed by several neighbors leading up to the meeting, who claimed Shell Beach Road needs more traffic-calming measures to make a project like this safe.

Speakers at Tuesday’s meeting also asked the commission to consider more traffic-safety measures, mostly traffic lights, safer crosswalks and sidewalks in the area (the current sidewalk ends before the corner of the property, with no sidewalk along Seacliff Drive).

City staff briefly addressed the concerns during discussion, saying the property owner has offered to extend the sidewalk around the corner of the property that would connect with a path to Spyglass Park, but it is not requiring additional traffic-safety measures in the area.

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Proposed Shell Beach hotel needs some tweaks, Pismo planners say."