Caruso Feels the Heat over Proposed Miramar Expansion

Rosewood Miramar Beach developer and owner Rick Caruso got his ear bent at a recent Montecito Association meeting, where neighbors voiced concern that his planned expansion of the five-star resort would increase traffic, block views, and generally commercialize their quiet beachside community. 

Caruso has proposed building 10-12 new boutiques, 10 luxury apartments, and a café on the Miramar’s western parking lot, as well as 26 units of affordable employee housing on the eastern lot. The plan remains in its early stages of approval, but nearby residents are already mounting steady pressure against it.

Caruso and his team argue the project was spurred entirely by Santa Barbara County’s need for affordable housing, and that the retail component is a necessary “economic engine” to get the studio and one-bedroom units built.

“This process started with the goal of providing additional affordable housing for our employees in one of the most expensive housing markets in California,” said Miramar representative Bryce Ross in a statement to the Independent. “For over a year, we’ve been talking with our neighbors and the Montecito community to understand their priorities, as well as those of our employees and guests.”

As Caruso hovered just outside the doorway of the standing-room-only hearing, Page Robinson accused the Los Angeles billionaire-developer of being motivated not by the construction of badly needed housing, but by profit. “It’s about money,” she said. “It’s about the erosion of what makes Montecito, Montecito.”

Robinson, who lives on the corner of Eucalyptus and South Jameson lanes, directly across from the resort, said her great-grandparents arrived in town at the turn of the 20th century. Her home was designed and built by her mother in 1949. “Bryce likes to say, ‘We plan to be here for 100 years,’” said Robinson. “Well, for those of us who already have, I cannot quite articulate what a heartbreak this is.”

Cliff Gherson, one the project’s loudest critics, asked the Montecito Association to uphold its mission to “protect the community.” “We would like to maintain the character of our neighborhood,” he said. Then Gherson addressed Caruso directly. “I have been doing some research on you, and you have been very generous with your family foundation,” he said. “You do right with a lot of schools, with kids who don’t have health care. And I am asking you, personally, to do right by this community, to leave us the way we are.”

Another speaker asked Caruso how he would feel if a “shopping mall” was constructed right next to his home. Caruso responded that “if it was done to the quality of the surrounding neighborhood,” he would support it. A fourth speaker called the promise to create affordable housing “a ruse to build a shopping center.” “Don’t do this to us!” he pleaded.

Wade “Chip” Nichols, a representative of All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church located next to the Miramar, said the church and the hotel have enjoyed positive relations since 2014, when Caruso first floated the idea of reviving the long-vacant property. At that time, Nichols said, Caruso’s team agreed to relocate a section of rooms in their plans to avoid blocking the church’s sightline of the Santa Ynez Mountains. 

The church recently completed a $10 million renovation that included a memorial chapel with a picture window that faces the mountains, Nichols went on. The new luxury apartments would eliminate that view. The church and Miramar representatives had met that morning, Nichols said, and while “we truly agreed to work hard to find a solution, we want this organization to know that All Saints very much has an issue.”

In his statement, Ross said such conversations have “guided and shaped” the Miramar’s plans. Since the project was first aired last fall, and after receiving feedback from residents and design boards, it has been scaled back, with a third story removed and its retail footprint significantly reduced. At the same time, the number of employee housing units went up from 16 to 26. “We continue to welcome input,” Ross said.

The project certainly has its supporters, as well. In a recent op-ed, Diana “Dee Dee” Wicks, who shares a property line with the hotel, stated: “The Miramar is a beautiful, well-run facility, a considerate neighbor, and a genuine asset for our community. We enthusiastically favor their plans to add employee housing, apartments, and shops.”

In her own letter, Marni Blau said: “The fact is, I live here, and like a lot of us I am excited to visit the shops planned for the Miramar. The stores can support affordable housing for hotel employees, without any public financing, which makes the plan even better. Who else is willing to do that?”

Ross has stated the employee housing would be a mix of very-low-, low-, and moderate-income units based on the area median income, or AMI. Santa Barbara’s AMI is approximately $129,000; Montecito’s is $200,000. Very low-income is defined as 30 to 50 percent of the AMI, low is 50 to 80 percent, and moderate is 80 to 120 percent.

Another neighbor, Ben Curtis, said he appreciated “the proactive and genuine interest” of Caruso’s team in seeking the thoughts of residents. “I welcome these changes, and know when it is all said and done, it will be beautiful,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gherson and fellow critic Valerie Aroyan ― who emphasize they endorse the housing side of the project, just not the retail ― have formed a group that’s mustering a more formal opposition to the plan when it appears before the Montecito Planning Commission next month. “Our goal is to preserve the character of our neighborhood in this coastal enclave,” they said in a recent mailer, “and to stop the Miramar from bringing us a slice of Rodeo Drive.”