| All candidates are in alphabetical order |
Land Use Policy - Affordable Housing |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| What is your position on affordable housing? Please be specific with regards to policies you support or oppose. | I support the inclusion of some affordable housing units in any new projects of multiple units, | I believe it is imperative that we find solutions for workforce housing and support our county in solutions that work to support all of the counties needs as well as take responsibility for the RHNA goals that have been set for Pacific Grove. |
| Do you support modifying city policies to make it easier and cheaper to build housing? If so, what specific policy changes do you support? | I do. Most cities could use a full and detailed review of their building codes and requirements with a view to making it easier to build infill housing. | Yes. Look at water permits where commercial buildings are getting priority over housing. |
| Do you support requiring developers to actually build inclusionary units instead of paying an “in lieu” fee? | I feel it is better to require developers to build inclusionary housing in a project, but there are times where it may also be advantageous for a community to accept In Lieu Fees. That may be the best way for some communities to collect enough money so that they can build or convert existing housing to accommodate the need for inclusionary units. | Yes |
| Do you support requiring that “inclusionary housing” units be made permanently affordable, even upon resale? If not, please explain. | If public funds are used yes, but if it is a private developer no. We need to incentivize builders to build inclusionary housing- not force them. It may be appropriate, however, to collect some portion of the gain on the sale of inclusionary housing in the market after 30 years, and use that for inclusionary housing at that time, keeping the cycle going. | Yes |
| Do you support requiring developers of hospitality, commercial and industrial projects that significantly increase demand for already scarce housing resources to also build workforce housing? | Not to build, but some development fees may be appropriate. Then the community can build or use those fees to defer some expenses for a developer to build housing. | Yes |
| What other housing policies do you support or oppose? | I support the relaxation of some building standards to make it easier and less expensive for people to remodel or renovate their existing homes. In Pacific Grove we had a developer who was willing to add inclusionary housing in exchange for the relaxation of some building requirements. Unfortunately he had to raise the building height limit to do so and the community protested. We need some leeway to be flexible with some rules when there is a gain to the community and we can meet other goals by doing so. |
1. Scale all fees by unit square footage, not per unit; and 2. Comprehensive pro-ADU production policies |
Water Supplies |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| What specific proposals do you support to ensure your community can meet its water demands without over-drafting groundwater aquifers or, if you live on the Monterey Peninsula, also the Carmel River? | Subsidizing the installation of some water saving technology in older homes. Getting people to install hot water recirculation systems, for instance, can save quite a bit of water because people don't have to let water flow until they get hot water for a shower. We did that when we fixed up our house and it helped greatly. There are other things like this that can also help. | I would like to see what the County Plan will be for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan to see if that will guide us. I also support Measure J as a solution with the support for recycled water. |
| Do you support expansion of Pure Water Monterey as an alternative to building a desalination plant? | I believe we should expand the Pure Water Monterey plant both to use existing available water that is suitable for recycling and to keep water costs down. We do need another sources of water though. PWM can only process what comes in and, during a drought, that may be a real problem. The public has decided that dam or reservoir storage is not desirable and, though expensive, desal is the next viable alternative. A desal plant could be smaller than Cal Am is proposing however, and/or even publicly owned. | Yes |
Sprawl Reduction |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| Do you support the creation of “urban growth boundaries” or expansion of the existing boundary as a way to prevent urban sprawl, and to insure that future growth is compact, efficient, and protective of the environment? If not, what measures would you support to prevent urban sprawl? If yes, will you sponsor an urban growth boundary in the upcoming year, and make it one of your top three priorities | I think we need to encourage infill development in cities before we build in new areas. I don't like putting up artificial boundaries, however, for a future we cannot predict. Growth is not just people moving in, it is also people having kids who will also eventually need housing. | Yes. I believe it is the responsibility of our region to sponsor urban growth boundary. Urban growth affects our entire region even if it isn’t directly in our city. Yes, I will make it one of my top 3 priorities |
Transportation |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| New commercial developments and hotels create more trips and additional vehicle miles travelled on already overcrowded roads and highways. Both residents and visitors pay the price of delay and increased pollution. What specific traffic congestion relief solutions do you support? | Infill development in cities - and the inclusion of affordable housing in cities - would reduce trips needed by people who live in low cost areas and work in higher cost areas. This is a difficult issues though, and a lot of people with more knowledge of traffic issues than I have look at this and don't have solutions. | One solution in our city would be not to develop another hotel that would increase overcrowding on our highways all the way to Gilroy. In the past we have been shortsighted in believing that Monterey is the only city that we need to be considered about in regards to traffic. |
| Do you support roundabouts on Highway 68 and other roads? What other transportation policies or practices have you seen that local governments should incorporate? | I would support some roundabouts where we can prove the need. But there are also areas where they don't make sense. Some people seem to have a love affair with roundabouts as a way of taking care of all problems, and I don't think they are. We also have a lot of other roads that could stand fixing up before we take on redoing roads that are in good to fair physical condition now. | YES. The roundabout on Hwy 68 has decreased traffic. I like the Rail Plan set up for Monterey County but I think we should be careful with the protected land in South County that proposed rail may run into. |
Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| What is your position on the Fort Ord Reuse Authority? Do you believe the Authority has achieved its original goals? If so, what evidence do you cite? | The organization has not achieved its original goals, but part of the reason for that is the community diverted them to goals that were not in the original plan. Since that is not likely to change, however, it is time for the organization to sunset and for the adjacent communities to take responsibility for their part of the base. | I think it is time to sunset FORA |
| Which do you support: 1) sunsetting the Authority in 2020 as current legislation contemplates or 2) extending the Authority beyond that date? If you support extending it, please explain why. | Sunset in 2020. | Sunset FORA. I think they went in with good intentions but could have never foreseen everything that would come in to play to role out the original goals, taking into account the overall needs of the county, water, growing university as well as taking into account the multi agencies and cities that would be stakeholders. |
| What is your position on the Eastside Parkway/Freeway/Road? | Based of the heavy traffic people currently experienced by people - and reference earlier - I think this roads should go in sooner or later. This may be a better solution to traffic issues than expanding existing roads and making them even worse wildlife barriers than they are now. | I believe that we should listen to the majority of the community voice that does not support the project and look to ways that will include the traffic solutions that are more feasible and take into consideration greater regional traffic issues. |
Leadership |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| If you are elected, what will be your top three priorities? | Make sure the city budget stays balanced. Try to grow existing business in a way that growth is local. Fix up our infrastructure - roads, sidewalks, crosswalks, storm drains, streetlights, etc. |
To look at getting in more workforce housing into the community. To re-examine the STR policy should Measure M not pass and look for the best interest of our residents and looking at a balanced way forward that might bring more long term rentals in our community. Work in partnership with regional government to move forward together in ways to positively effect our housing and transportation problems. |
| What land use policies are you willing to champion for the community? | A thorough review of all of our land use regulations to make sure they still fill the needs we have today - as well as an update of our general plan and zoning codes. | I would like to re-introduce the idea to get bicycle tourism from the recreation trail into downtown Monterey. To use the Proposed Plan B Class 4 Bike Plan on Pine Ave to route bike traffic in a safe way across Pine and to Asilomar. |
| What accomplishments in your career or public service are you most proud of? | I'm not done with my career in public service yet. | It was in 2010 that I began my global work in connecting youth to one another and began a movement in ocean conservation and stewardship. Working with jurisdictional governments around the world and State, County and City Government's throughout California has given me the experience and now how on how to provide services that had never been done before. I worked with teams to develop and create policies that would need to be flexible enough to work across borders. It's easy to come up with an idea but it took leadership, follow through, expertise, accountability, risk taking, economic resourcefulness and business know how to reach the success of reaching over 10,000 youth across the world. |
Background |
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| Rudy Fischer | Dionne Ybarra | |
| Occupation | Retired. | Executive Director |
| Years Lived in Area | 10 | 47 |
| Education | Bachelors and Master's degrees. | BA Liberal Studies |
| Experience | Almost 50 years of working with and managing people to get them to agree on a common direction. Worked in high technology for most of my career and retired as Vice President of Administration (all the non-engineering stuff). | Non Profit Executive Director, Operations and Finance Manager Large Scale Environmental Non Profit, Chair of County Commissions, Boardsmanship. |
| Bill Peake did not respond. |