Title
REF260022 - DOUGLAS RANCH LLC
Public hearing to consider a recommendation to the County of Monterey Board of Supervisors listing the original building cluster of “Douglas Ranch Camp” on the Monterey County Register of Historic Resources
Project Location: 33200 E. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley (Assessor's Parcel Number 197-161-060-000 and 197-161-063-000), Cachagua Area Plan
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the Monterey County Historic Resources Review Board (HRRB) adopt a resolution (Attachment 1) recommending that the Board of Supervisors list the original building cluster of “Douglas Ranch Camp” on the Monterey County Register of Historic Resources.
DISCUSSION:
The site is a total of 116 acres containing the original building cluster of the Douglas Ranch Camp that was built between 1947 and 1949, consisting of Dining Hall/Kitchen/Laundry Building, Office/Lounge Building, Automatic Process Control (APC) Building, Bunkhouse, and Director’s House, with additional recreational areas including the Lower and Upper Tennis courts, an Archery Range, a Baseball Field, a Rifle Range, a Crafts Building, a Swimming Pool, a Horse Barn/Stable, a Donkey Barn, a Corral, and three separate cabin groupings that were developed gradually since. The property is situated in rolling oak-studded hills south of Tularcitos Creek and Carmel Valley Road within Carmel Valley. On July 6, 2026, Asia King submitted a letter on behalf of the property owner Joy Berry requesting that the recommended structures on the subject property be listed on the Monterey County Register of Historical Resources. The request was accompanied by a Phase I Historic Report prepared by Seth Bergstein (Attachment 2, LIB260231) evaluating the historical significance of the home.
The Phase I report describes Douglas Ranch Camp is seen as significant under the California Register of Historic Resources Criterion 1, associated with significant events, patterns or trends like the American Camping Movement, and under Criterion 2, associated with the lives of persons important history for its association with the owner Grace Parsons Douglas. The review criteria in Monterey County Code section 18.25.070 allow a resource which qualifies under the California register criteria to be listed on the local register.
Douglas American camping movement and the camps educational and experiential methodology. While Douglas Ranch Camps was originally founded in 1925 within Pebble Beach in the facility that the Robert Louis Stevenson School currently resides, the camp relocated to its current location in 1948 for a better site to be more isolated in the natural environment that lined up with the camps curriculum.
The owner and creator of the camp was done by a woman named Grace Parsons Douglas. Grace Parsons Douglas, a graduate of Harvard University, was a leading member for both the American camping and education movements through her involvement in both the American Camping Association and the Headmistress Association from her love of the development and teaching of children. Her camp taught community, rectitude, and altruism. After her passing in 1968, her descendants owned and lived on the subject property until it was sold to its current owner.
CEQA:
The listing of the original building cluster of “Douglas Ranch Camp” on the Monterey County Register of Historic Resources is not a “Project” under CEQA, as it does not involve either a direct change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect change in the physical environment. As the activity is not a Project, it is not subject to CEQA review.
Prepared by: Jordan Evans-Polockow, Assistant Planner
Reviewed by: Anna Ginette Quenga, AICP, Senior Planner
The following attachments are on file with Housing and Community Development:
Exhibit A - Draft Resolution
Exhibit B - Phase I Historic Assessment
Exhibit C - Letter Requesting the Property be Listed on the Historic Register