LandWatch Wants A Prompt Decision on The GPU

May 13, 2003

Chairperson Fernando Armenta
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
240 Church Street
Salinas, CA 93901

RE: Schedule and Process – General Plan Update

Dear Members of the Board of Supervisors:

Despite what people may have read in the papers, the General Plan Update schedule you adopted last week will make it virtually impossible to complete the GPU this year. That’s regrettable.

The agenda materials before you on May 6th contained several alternative timelines. They specifically said you could meet a December 16, 2003 deadline for GPU completion only if you followed Alternative #1, and directed preparation of an EIR and the circulation of the “second draft" General Plan Update on or before May 20, 2003.

While you “began" your motion with a reference to Alternative #1, you did not, in fact, adopt that recommendation. Instead, you added to that schedule a motion to hold multiple workshops to review and/or redo what you spent four months doing at the end of last year. The last such workshop is scheduled for June 24th. June 24th is more than a month after the May 20th date by which you need to put the “second draft" GPU document out for public comment, to meet the December deadline.

The Salinas Californian complimented you last Saturday on setting a “deadline," with “no delays and no extensions." It’s nice to get “good press," even if it’s based on a misunderstanding. What counts, however, isn’t what you “said," it’s what you “did." More accurately, what counts is what you “do." May 20th is next week. Therefore, your Board can still actually “do" what you “said" you were going to do. And LandWatch hopes you will.

Next week, when this matter comes back before the Board, LandWatch urges you to set a deadline for completion of the GPU this year, and take the actions needed to meet that deadline. You should also spell out the GPU schedule with specificity, so everyone knows what you actually plan to do. Thank you for taking this suggestion into account, as you take further action on the General Plan Update process next week.

cc: Salinas Californian
LandWatch Members
Other Interested Persons

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posted 05.15.03