Hotel opponents add defendants to the list
Attorneys for a group opposed to a proposal to build a luxury
hotel in Tres Pinos filed documents last month adding the county
Planning Commission to a growing list of defendants.
Hotel opponents add defendants to the list
Attorneys for a group opposed to a proposal to build a luxury hotel in Tres Pinos filed documents last month adding the county Planning Commission to a growing list of defendants.
“Friends of Tres Pinos” are suing San Benito County, the Board of Supervisors and now the planning commission to void a key document that would clear the way for an application to build.
The reason for the amended “petition for writ of mandate” is simple, according to one of two attorneys for the group of Tres Pinos residents. “The county Board of Supervisors says it can’t invalidate the negative declaration because it was adopted by the county Planing Commission,” explained Cory Briggs of San Diego.
John and Jae Eade of Hollister proposed The Spur, a 44-unit hotel with conference facilities, for an area at the north end of Tres Pinos that had been zoned for homes.
The proposal quickly attracted vocal opposition, mostly from people living in the village south of Hollister.
As it seesawed its way slowly through the governmental and political process, the project ultimately won approval of a “negative declaration,” a document that indicates a project’s effect on the surrounding area is either insignificant or of small enough consequence that its effect can be mitigated. Projects with the likelihood of greater effect can be required to commission an environmental impact report, an often expensive and time-consuming undertaking. But the negative declaration was not tied to a “commercial district review.”
Nor did the board certify the negative declaration before voting to change zoning from residential to commercial, clearing the way for the hotel.
After learning of the procedural mistakes, the Board of Supervisors earlier this year rescinded the zone change they approved late last year. Within days of approval last year, the Friends of Tres Pinos filed their lawsuit.
The Eades could not be reached to comment on their plans for the site but Eade reportedly remarked earlier that “we’re back to where we were 19 months ago,” when the project proposal was first made.
