$500-Million Resort Plan Wins Key Initial Approval

The $500-million Monarch Beach Resort took a large step toward reality Tuesday night when it won approval from the Dana Point Planning Commission.

The commission voted 4 to 1 to approve the project, with Commissioner William Ossenmacher dissenting.

The next step for the 225-acre mega-resort--a golf course, hotel and residential complex that has been likened to Monterey’s Pebble Beach resort--will be its first public hearing before the City Council on Feb. 25.

Before the final vote, the commission added two more stipulations to the project. It limited condominium clusters to 12 units each and limited their height to 35 feet. The sizes and heights of all other buildings, including the hotel, clubhouse, and other homes has yet to be worked out.

Ossenmacher said he could not support their project because he believes that it deviates from the city’s General Plan “which states that the height and scope of new development should be compatible with existing areas.”

But Tuesday night, representatives of the resort’s developer, Japan-based Nippon Shinpan Co. Ltd., expressed gratitude for the commission’s vote.

“We see this as a giant step forward,” said Ben Cagle, the project’s general manager. “Everyone has worked very hard to get this far; we have had five public workshops and literally dozens and dozens of meetings with the community.”

Over the past two weeks, staff members from the city and the resort hammered out a compromise on the only remaining issue before the commission: a construction timeline. During the negotiations, the city sought assurance that the 400-room, five-star hotel included in the resort would be built first, while the resort representatives wanted a schedule that would fit its finances.

The residential portion of the resort consists of 238 single-family homes and condominiums and will follow groundbreaking for the hotel.

Still to come for the resort will be scrutiny by the California Coastal Commission. An earlier version of the resort that included 1,100 hotel rooms and 300,000 square feet of commercial space was approved unanimously by the commission in the mid-1980s.