Tomorrow is a big day for democratic self-government at the Monterey County courthouse, as the Board of Supervisors reconsiders its adoption of Resolution 04-421. This resolution was part of the Board's approval of the Rancho San Juan Specific Plan, the largest development project in Monterey County history.

Immediately after the Board's approval of Rancho San Juan in December, activists launched a referendum campaign. Within thirty days, opponents collected signatures from over 16,000 registered voters. The County's election official has now certified that enough of those signatures were valid to require the Board to "reconsider" its approval action. That's where the victory for democratic self?]government comes in. Many citizens don't realize how totally we have ceded our governmental powers to our elected officials. The five member Board of Supervisors really "is" the County, as far as the legalities go. The California Constitution, however, lets voters supervise the Supervisors. The purpose of the referendum power is to allow citizens to vote themselves, when they think their elected officials might have made a mistake. If the Board doesn't rescind their action tomorrow, then Monterey County voters will get to decide. Giving voters the right to decide important issues themselves is what the referendum (and democracy) is all about.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Monterey County Board of Supervisors Agenda
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/agenda.htm

Information on Rancho San Juan
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/
issuesactions/northcounty.html

Here's what the Monterey County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to do between 10:30 and noon today: Handle four important health care items; establish three new stop signs in Carmel Woods; decide whether to hold a referendum election on Rancho San Juan; decide whether to approve a controversial North County subdivision, Rancho Roberto, creating more new lots in an area suffering from groundwater overdraft; consider submitting to the Coastal Commission an initiative measure related to development in the Del Monte Forest; and (last but not least) to decide whether to approve a major new development in the Del Monte Forest, as proposed by the Pebble Beach Company.

In fact, as anyone who has ever gone to a Board meeting knows, it's unlikely that the Board will get much beyond the stop sign item. Putting matters on the agenda this way, however, does insure that citizens interested in development issues will be maximally inconvenienced. Specifically, if anyone wants to testify on Rancho Roberto or the Pebble Beach Company plan, they'll have to spend virtually the whole day in Salinas, and will have no way to know when, or even if, they'll be able to testify.

The Pebble Beach Company project is based on an initiative titled the "Del Monte Forest … Preservation …Plan." In fact, the proposal is to chop down 15,000 or more Monterey Pine trees, to make way for a new golf course and other development. There's more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Monterey County Board of Supervisors Agenda
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/agenda.htm

Pebble Beach Plan
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/pbi/major/pbc/
030105_bos/030105_bos_main.htm

I've been trying, amidst my usual bulletins about upcoming meetings relating to land use, to talk about our affordable housing crisis. The "Community General Plan," developed by eighteen community groups with members in Monterey County, contains a policy that calls it like it really is. Proposed Policy #1 says:

The lack of adequate affordable housing in Monterey County has caused, and will continue to cause serious economic, public safety, social, and environmental problems. These problems constitute a community crisis, and without the policies established within this General Plan, new commercial, industrial, and residential developments will make these problems worse. The public health, safety, and welfare require that new developments within Monterey County help provide increased housing opportunities for persons who live and work in Monterey County, and particularly for those persons with very low, low, or moderate incomes.

Substitute "Santa Cruz County," or "San Benito County," or "San Luis Obispo County," and this policy statement would be just as true. Housing activists in those areas might want to review what has come out of the citizen activism in Monterey County. There are some pretty good ideas that deserve consideration throughout the entire Central Coast. To find out more, click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Community General Plan
http://www.8of10monterey.com/pages/
community/gpu/communitygpu.html

The Silicon Valley is one of the fastest-growing business centers in the world. That's a "mixed blessing" sometimes for Central Coast residents. The incredible economic growth of the Silicon Valley has produced jobs and other benefits that Central Coast residents enjoy. However, the associated effects, particularly the exportation of Silicon Valley housing demand, does cause problems for neighboring jurisdictions. Santa Cruz County dealt with these "spin off" effects of Silicon Valley growth in the seventies and the eighties. Looked at one way, Measure J, adopted by Santa Cruz County voters in 1978, was a local effort to defend the independence and integrity of Santa Cruz County from the incredible growth pressures stemming from the Silicon Valley.

Monterey County is now facing comparable growth pressures. The future of Monterey County will probably be determined by whether or not Monterey County voters defend themselves against Silicon Valley growth pressures, or whether they accommodate the almost insatiable demand for new housing developments related to Silicon Valley growth.

This scenario is not a figment of my personal imagination. The leading business newspaper of the Silicon Valley, The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, has now scheduled a forum on March 18th, in Salinas, to discuss this very topic. There's more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/

Business Journal Monterey County Event
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/event/
1307?sid=74e3b17ecc23e4f05da33554e074a7ee

Santa Cruz County Measure J
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/publications02/
081802MeasureJstory.pdf

Bob Dylan has noted (in case we hadn't noticed it ourselves) that we "live in a political world." Politics, properly understood, is the way that we make community decisions that guide both our individual and community efforts. The so-called "political" decisions that are made by our governmental agencies do shape the character and quality of our lives, and determine our future. The nice thing about democracy is that we can (if we're willing to get involved) have a definite effect on what happens to us.

The key to "politics," in my opinion, is to understand it as a community decision making process. We're not just a collection of individuals. We do live together, and actually have to; we need each other. Therefore, we have to have some way to decide what we're going to do, as a community. Naturally, there are different ideas about the options, and the debate and discussion, conflict and controversy that characterize "politics," is the first stage in self-government. The second stage is the "decision" stage, where hard choices are made by elected representatives, or by the people acting directly. Those decisions are made in the form of "laws," which are nothing more than our written down instructions to ourselves about what we think we ought to do. When we follow the laws we make, we chart the course of the ship of state. That's what self-government is really all about.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

It's always good news when citizens can get easy access to the laws that actually determine our course as a community. The Monterey County Code (all those laws) is now online. That's new, and it's good news for the politics of Monterey County. Here's the reference: http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/montereyco/