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Carmel Planning Commission weighs whether historic Aw Shucks should keep parcel'level drinking-place entitlement
Summary
A director's referral on the Aw Shucks restaurant on Ocean Avenue prompted debate over decades of building permits that added kitchen equipment and whether the property'level drinking-place permit should remain attached to the site while the operator continues as a full-line restaurant; commissioners directed staff to return with options.
The Carmel-by-the-Sea Planning Commission spent the bulk of its Oct. 8 meeting on a director's referral examining the long permitting history and present operation of Aw Shucks, the Ocean Avenue oyster-and-bar restaurant that has operated in various forms for decades.
Anna Jeanette, a Community Planning and Building staffer, told commissioners that the site'level use permit originally listed the business as a drinking place with limited food, but a series of building permits (noted in staff records from the 1990s and 2008) installed expanded cooking equipment. A 2023 business license listed the primary use as a full'line restaurant. "Based on the documents we found, the operation meets the standards for both a drinking place and a full-line restaurant in places, but the record is inconsistent," Anna Jeanette said.
John Plastini, representing the…
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