Rick Caruso Issues Statement on Miramar Hotel Project in Montecito

After a heated meeting Monday afternoon with the Montecito Planning Commission and their decision to postpone a hearing that could decide the future of the Miramar Hotel project in Monteicto, billionaire developer Rick Caruso has issued the following statement:

For the past 18 months we have worked to redesign our Miramar project; the result is a smaller, more efficient project, with fewer impacts on the community and consistent with all of the input we’ve heard from Montecito residents.

Despite a recommendation from County staff to approve the project, a unanimous endorsement from the Montecito Association and overwhelming community support, the Montecito Planning Commission chose to delay approval of our revised Miramar hotel project.

We are obviously very disappointed with the result, in particular with the apparent interest of some commissioners to seek significant changes to the project, which would result in months of further delay.

We appreciate the support of so many in the community and are sorry their wishes were not heard.

The result of yesterday’s meeting has now delayed our planned groundbreaking in June. We will take some time to consider whether there is still a viable path for building the Miramar hotel.