Cambria Christmas Market can be held another 15 years after permit appeal denied
The Cambria Christmas Market — a popular local holiday destination that features visits with Santa Claus and more than 3 million sparkling lights — will operate for another 15 years after a push to stop its permit was denied.
On Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to deny an appeal filed by a longtime Cambria resident to block the market’s 15-year permit.
“It provides significant benefit to the business community of Cambria,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson said during the meeting. “It likewise imposes significant impacts on particularly the residential areas of Cambria, and it’s up to this board to assure that those impacts are properly mitigated.”
In her appeal, 38-year-long Cambria resident Claudia Worthen said noise, traffic and light created by the market were disruptive to nearby residences, and she accused the market operator of damaging the nearby Monterey pine forest.
“Nobody particularly likes having the Christmas Market around their residences,” Worthen said, noting that the traffic and light pollution were “eroding the magic and sacredness” of the holiday season.
The market has been operating under a two-year extension of a five-year “temporary event” permit. That permit was allowed to stretch to cover three years, through the 2023 holiday season, because of the pandemic impacts.
The market was much smaller when it began in 2012, but it’s always been a lightning rod for community comment and complaints.
Eventually, because of those issues, year-to-year permitting authority for the event shifted to the California Coastal Commission, in part due to the market’s impact on the adjacent forest of rare, native Monterey pines. Parking, traffic and noise were other hot-button issues.
In February, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission approved a 15-year permit for Dirk Winter and his company Pacific Cambria LLC to operate the market.
Pacific Cambria LLC must implement a variety of mitigation measures to avoid disrupting the peace of the town, such as capping the number of guests per night at 3,000 people.
Winter said the event brings the Christmas spirit to Cambria.
“Christmas markets in general are a place for the community to gather, slow down, enjoy the season,” Winter told The Tribune after the meeting. “The charming, cutesy nature of the town lends itself to Christmas decorations.”
Cambria Christmas Market granted 15-year permit
In February, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission voted to approve a 15-season permit for the Cambria Christmas Market, hosted at the Cambria Pines Lodge.
The permit allows up to 46 temporary vendor booths per night, and the market must turn off its lights by 9 p.m., county planner Nicole Ellis said.
The market will operate during the Christmas season each week from Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m.
The commission also allowed the market to add an additional week of operations from Dec. 26 to 31 as a pilot program. After two years, the county will evaluate whether or not to authorize that extra week of the market for the remaining 13 years of the permit.
The commission required the market to offer 3,000 free passes to Cambria residents per holiday season through the Cambria Chamber of Commerce and provide complimentary parking passes to locals impacted by traffic congestion, Ellis said. The market also must meet certain sound and light limits, she said.
However, chamber officials said July 16 that they’ve not been consulted on this aspect of the permit, nor do they have any tickets or sufficient staffing to handle the assignment.
Additionally, Pacific Cambria LLC must submit an annual report to the county Planning Department to prove that the market followed the county’s conditions for the project. That report must include daily attendance statistics, acoustic monitoring reports and photos, she said.
If the market fails to comply with the project conditions, the county can revoke the permit, Ellis said. The county also can require more mitigation measures in the future if needed, she said.
Appeal said Christmas market disrupted neighborhood, cut down trees
Worthen accused Pacific Cambria LLC of removing trees without a permit and destroying environmentally sensitive habitat. In her appeal, she said a neighbor witnessed people cutting down multiple trees and informed her of the incident.
County code enforcement, however, did not have record of complaints of unpermitted tree removal on the property, Ellis said. Meanwhile, the market is designed to avoid vegetated areas, and no trees will be removed for the market, she said.
Dave Watson, a planner working with Pacific Cambria LLC, confirmed that the company had not removed trees without a permit.
“We do trim trees, and to the extent that we trim trees is for the protection of the buildings — permanent buildings — onsite, and the walkways,” Watson said.
Worthen also urged the county to prepare an environmental impact report on the market to examine its impacts to the Monterey pine forest and the community’s dwindling water supply.
Ellis, however, said the county is not required by the California Environmental Quality Act to prepare such a report for the project, as the temporary event does not involve new development that would impact Cambria’s water supply.
Visitors will use restrooms in the Cambria Pines Lodge or portable restrooms and hand washing stations, Ellis said. Meanwhile, food will be prepared in the existing hotel restaurant or brought from offsite by vendors, and potable water will be supplied in water bottles. All of these measures prevent the market from increasing use of Cambria’s water, she said.
Finally, Worthen disputed the project’s compatibility with Cambria, noting that it creates traffic congestion along with light and sound pollution.
Watson, however, said the market has never violated its noise requirements, and Pacific Cambria LLC conducted sound monitoring studies each year to ensure that it was compliant.
Meanwhile, Pacific Cambria LLC hired a professional traffic management company to assist with the event. The company also offers shuttles from offsite parking to the market.
The newly-approved permit requires the company to work with the county to modify shuttle routes to minimize traffic. Gibson suggested adding an additional shuttle to Moonstone Beach Drive.
Before and after the event, the organizers typically host an outreach session with neighbors to discuss concerns with the market, Watson said.
“We have gone further than probably most temporary events that you allow in the county to interact with the neighbors and make sure we’re hearing from them,” Watson said. “The fact that most of the neighbors around our property aren’t here should tell you something about the efforts.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
