Faced with 18,000 signatures and a lawsuit, the County Supervisors reverse previous decision on MST/Whispering Oaks Project

Under the leadership of LandWatch Monterey County the public’s voices were heard loud and clear at the February 14th Board of Supervisors meeting. Folks from Fort Ord Rec Users, Sustainable Seaside and Marina, Keep Fort Ord Wild, and Citizens for a Sustainable Monterey County showed up in force to encourage the Supervisors to do the right thing. The Board did an about-face and reversed its July 2011 decision on the Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) / Whispering Oaks Business Park project. The Board’s approval would have resulted in the loss of over 3400 oak trees and miles of established hiking and horse trails. LandWatch Monterey County took the necessary step to not only file a lawsuit on the project’s environmental documents, but also work with Fort Ord Rec Users to undertake a successful referendum to over-turn the re-zoning of the site. It was this two pronged approach and the amazing work of the activists that convinced the Board to change its decision.

Faced with 18,000 signatures on the referendum—only 10,800 were needed to qualify for the ballot—the Board had two options: rescind its original decision or allow voters to decide the project’s fate. Because of the dedication of numerous volunteers and community leaders, LandWatch had a tremendous victory with the decision to turn down the project. Now, thousands of oak trees and miles of trails through spectacular natural lands were spared harm from this project. To boot, LandWatch was again able to meet its mission of a more engaged public in the decision making process.

In explaining their votes, the Supervisors said they were “reversing what was a bad decision” and they had “not given the project enough scrutiny.” The Board of Supervisors ultimately agreed with the public and voted 4-1 (Armenta opposed) to send MST back to the drawing board. No one from the public on February 14th spoke in favor of the project.

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posted 02.22.12