Rick Caruso rarely loses.

So, chalk up housing and luxury boutique shops as victories for his high-end, upscale Rosewood Miramar Beach Resort in Montecito.

The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously Thursday to deny appeals from two community groups attempting to block the project. The 12-member panel met in Santa Barbara for three days at the Hilton on Cabrillo Boulevard.

The neighbors raised concerns about parking and traffic congestion, as well as the necessity of expensive shops. They alleged Caruso was turning the hotel into a mini mall, but only for the ultra-rich.

However, the commissioners said that new housing, designed for employees, was too good to pass up.

“The fact is that there are affordable housing units coming in with this project,” said Meagan Harmon, a commissioner and member of the Santa Barbara City Council. “To me, that is very, very important, and it is important to us as a commission.”

Harmon said she didn’t see any issue with the parking proposal.

“I think this will be a good project, and I support it moving forward,” she said.

Board chairman Justin Cumming said the levels of affordability with the project are “almost unheard of.”

He said the 480 proposed parking spaces for the hotel “are probably enough.”

“One of the things this commission has really been supportive of is affordable housing, trying to get hotels to build housing for their workers,” Cummings said. “I couldn’t see us today rejecting an affordable housing project like this.”

The Caruso team was pleased with the commission’s vote.

“We are deeply proud to now move forward with this innovative plan that will allow the Miramar to do even more to serve our dedicated employees, our guests and all of Montecito,” said Caruso, founder and executive chairman, said in a statement. “We sincerely appreciate the partnership and trust of hundreds of neighbors and community members who helped guide and improve this plan over more than two years, and we will now turn our focus to bringing this important plan to life.”

Caruso’s plan will provide 26 affordable apartments for Miramar employees, representing 76% of the plan’s total units.

Caruso said the plan also will include “approximately a dozen” curated resort shops on the ground floor, along with eight market-rate apartments and new green space.

“The plan represents the first new affordable housing in Montecito in over three decades,” Caruso said.

One of the neighbors, Page Robinson, a consistent voice of the project, spoke out at the meeting and noted that the parking study was performed by a consultant paid for by the Miramar. She believes that guests of the luxury boutique shops and people who live at the site will have to park in the neighborhood around the Miramar.

“Where the following park?” Robinson asked. “Shoppers, diners, part-time employees, contract employees, 61 new retail employees, vendors associated with events, photographers, musicians. All I have to do is work outside my front door to see the photographer scurrying with the equipment heading over to the Miramar.”