For more than a year, the Rosewood Miramar Beach Resort in Montecito has touted its plan to build 16 below-market-rate apartments for hotel employees.

However, there’s much more to the plan.

Rick Caruso, owner of the resort at 1555 S. Jameson Lane, wants to build about 10 market-rate apartments also at the site, for people who “want to live at the Miramar.” In addition, Caruso wants to add about 20,000 square feet of high-end boutique retail shops.

For some neighbors, who have organized opposition to the project, the Rosewood Miramar has turned into a lavish resort that caters to “mega, multimillionaire people.”

Although rates vary depending on the season, beach rooms and suites start at $4,995 a night; Manor House rooms start at $3,495; bungalow rooms and suites start at $1,790; and lanai rooms and suites start at $1,715.

Cliff Gherson along with married couple Branden and Valerie Aroyan have formed Neighbors of the Miramar and are demanding more transparency from Caruso and the Rosewood Miramar team.

“They are trying to convert the hotel into a shopping center,” Gherson said, “and 12 to 15 luxury apartments that will probably rent out for $20,000 a month.”

The Rosewood Miramar has not yet submitted a formal project to Santa Barbara County but has talked about the latest plans to neighbors and at a recent Montecito Association Land Use Committee meeting.

“Since we reopened five years ago, we have heard significant interest in living at the Miramar,” Bryce Ross, a Miramar representative, wrote in an email to Noozhawk. “That’s why we’re adding a modest number of new apartments to the property. Our original plan had 15 market-rate apartments, and we expect that number to decrease by about 30% as the plan evolves.”

Some neighbors believe that the Miramar’s real goal is to build the high-end apartments and retail shops but proposed the employee housing as a way to build favor with the county. Miramar representatives contend that the employee housing is intended for housekeepers, gardeners and kitchen staff, but has not yet articulated the levels of affordability.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development defines affordable housing based on the area median income. In Santa Barbara, the area median income is about $129,000. In Montecito, it is about $200,000, according to U.S. Census data.

The 16 “affordable” units would be for very low income, which is for people earning 30% to 50% of the AMI; lower income, for people earning between 50% and 80% of the AMI; and moderate income, for people earning between 80% and 120% of the AMI.

Gherson and the Aroyans said they support affordable housing but that most of the affordable units still would be out of reach for most of the service staff.

Gherson estimated that about 3% of the employees get an apartment.

“Big deal, but in exchange for that, they want to change our neighborhood, and that is what we are against,” Gherson said. “We don’t want to see the neighborhood become a slice of Rodeo Drive.”

He said he recently tried to buy a pair of jeans at one of the current boutique shops at the Miramar, at a cost of $750.

“The stores he is going to put in are going to be Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Rolex — the high-priced stuff that you see at a big mall in Beverly Hills,” Gherson said.

Ross has not yet said how many boutiques, or their names, would go in at the resort. He told Noozhawk that the company expects to submit a formal application soon.

Caruso, who accumulated his wealth through owning and developing shopping malls, and who unsuccessfully ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022, purchased the Miramar for about $50 million in 2007.

In the early 1990s, poolside rooms sold for $70 a night, lanai rooms for $80 a night and oceanfront rooms for $135 a night. The original hotel was built in 1889 and was demolished in 2000.

Neighbors contend that hotel representatives are dangling the housing as a carrot, but that the big boutique shops and market-rate housing to cater to high-end clients are really what they desire.

“They are sugar-coating all the little things, but there is so much more,” Brandon Aroyan said. “If they bring in more shops, more employees, then they are going to create more of a demand for housing.”

Valerie Aroyan said she was told that the leases for the affordable housing units would be for six months to a year.

“Who does that serve?” Aroyan asked. “If you are a housekeeper and you need housing, in that six months you are living there you are constantly looking for somewhere else to live. It’s not a long-term situation.”

As of now, the affordable housing would be near Posillipo, on the east side of the property, and the boutique shops ans apartments would be at the Eucalyptus end. 

Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Das Williams, who leaves office in January after losing a re-election bid, said employee housing is “a laudable goal” and that the Miramar appears to be “cooperative” with the neighbors.

“Like the neighbors, I am concerned about the scale of the commercial and precisely what kind of shops go in there,” Williams said. “If they are serving the guests and people who live close by, that isn’t a problem. On the other hand, if the wrong kind of commercial is there, it could become a traffic generator.”

The project also has support from neighbors.

“The Miramar has been a wonderful addition to Montecito,” neighbor Marni Blau said. “The Miramar team has listened to their neighbors and has been hospitable and welcoming since the day they opened their doors.”

Blau said she has reviewed the preliminary plans, and “I do not see anything out of character” with the neighborhood. 

“The fact is, I live here and I, as many of us are, am excited to visit the planned shops,” Blau said. “The stores can support affordable housing, which makes the plan even more attractive.”

The additional resort shops, Ross said, would “match the design and aesthetics of the Miramar as it exists today” and that the boutique shops would be “entirely inward-facing,” away from Eucalyptus and Jameson lanes.

“From a neighborhood perspective, very little will be changing,” Ross said.

Neighbor Page Robinson has concerns separate from Gherson and the Aroyans. She lives on Eucalyptus Lane, in a house designed by her mother, Barbara Robinson, in 1949.

“I support affordable housing, but developing 20,000 square feet of luxury apartments and shops will bring more new employees to the site than it will house in 16 units,” Robinson said.

She said the development would worsen already limited public coastal access.

“The iconic mountain view as one walks from the beach down Eucalyptus Lane is one of a kind in Santa Barbara and irreplaceable,” Robinson said. “The destruction of that view is too great a public sacrifice for the benefit of a private investor. You can build shops and apartments anywhere. There is only one Eucalyptus Lane mountain view, shared by many.”