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From page 27 IYD
of the Rancho San Carlos plan that required zoning changes.
Everything else — the homes, the golf course, the equestrian
center and the two private clubs — were already allowed by the
land’s longtime zoning and therefore not subject to repeal by
ballot measure.
So Gray was able to proceed with creating a community that
is now his pride and joy, and not just for its 18,000 acres of open
space. Rancho San Carlos generates an extra $8 million in property
taxes each year for Monterey County and has created hundreds
of local jobs.
“There are so many good things going on here, and it’s
because we started with a very sound plan that was way ahead
of what everybody else was doing,” Gray said.
Two architects who have designed homes at Rancho San
Carlos enthusiastically agreed.
“We do a lot of green construction, and our firm has worked
a lot in the California vernacular style,” said Eric Haesloop of
the San Francisco firm, Turnbull Griffin Haesloop. “And we
were very excited to create a house at Rancho San Carlos that
was in line with their environmental goals.”
The house he designed at Rancho San Carlos, for example,
was built with walls of sprayed earth — with most of the material
for the walls coming from the excavation for the foundation.
“It’s a modern version of adobe, and that’s part of what ties
it in to its place,” Haesloop said.
“Rancho San Carlos is probably the most environmentally
sensitive subdivision in the state,” said Pacific Grove architect
Eric Miller. “It’s not uncommon to have a 30-acre parcel, but
you only have a two-acre envelope where you can build, and
when you go to design review, it’s very important that not only
the house be beautiful, but you have to work with the Santa
Lucia Conservancy, which gives you environmental guidelines.”
For example, they won’t let you plant olive trees, Miller said,
because birds might spread the non-native trees to the wildlands.
“One of the virtues of working out there is that your individual
efforts as an architect are expanded tremendously by the
sensitivity by which they drafted the development guidelines,”
said Mario Violich of the Santa Monica firm, Moore Ruble
Yudell. “The guidelines get all the architects working together to
create a vision for the preservation of this treasured piece of
California landscape.”
“This is a community of national significance that set a very
strong example,” Gray said. “Back in 1990, not a lot of people
were talking about building green. But now everybody is.”
March 26, 2010 The Carmel Pine Cone 29 IYD
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