KUSP LandWatch News
Week of March 28, 2005 to April 1, 2005

Usually, the project sponsor is a private party, and the Council’s role is to evaluate the proposed project from the community perspective. In this case, though, the Council was part of the development team. In other words, it had a basic conflict of interest. It was both promoting the project as sponsor, and reviewing the project on behalf of the public. Mr. Coonerty’s quote, if accurate, shows that he identifies himself more as a project sponsor than as a project reviewer. That conflict of interest position always has the potential to lead to bad decisions. Ironically, it’s exactly the position the Santa Cruz City Council had in the 1970’s, when the Council sponsored the development of a famous project to build a high rise hotel on Lighthouse Field.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

It’s always good to read the classifieds. Sometimes, that’s the place to find out about important meetings. Last week, a little advertisement in the classified section of the Herald announced a public meeting to be held on Wednesday March 30th (that’s tomorrow), at the Holiday Inn Express in Marina. The hotel is located at 189 Seaside Circle, right off Reservation Road. This may be a meeting you’d like to attend. It starts at 6:30 p.m.

The proposed development of the Armstrong Ranch in Marina, and the redevelopment of Fort Ord by the cities of Seaside, Marina, and the County of Monterey, will have a dramatic impact on the future of Monterey County, and particularly on the Monterey Peninsula. There are lots of planning issues raised by the various development proposals now being considered. Traffic impacts are important, of course, as is the relationship of the proposed new development to the limited water supplies available for growth.

Tomorrow, the public is being invited to hear an update on recent findings affecting groundwater supplies. Apparently, testing has now demonstrated that toxic contamination from past activity on the former Fort Ord has migrated off site. Toxic contamination of the water supplies that serve current and future customers could have devastating effects. To find out more, be at the meeting tomorrow evening. Check the KUSP website for more detail.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

To find out more about the March 30, 2005 meeting, please contact Ms. Melissa Broadston at 831-393-1284.

The Armanasco Public Relations group has sent me a press release, announcing a meeting this evening from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The meeting is billed as a “Town Hall,” to gather public input regarding the proposed “Coastal Water Project,” which is the name given to the proposal by California American Water  Company to build a large desalination plant in Moss Landing, and then to pipe the new water produced across the farmlands located between Moss Landing and the Monterey Peninsula.

The meeting will be held in the Moss Landing Chamber of Commerce Building, located at 8071-D Moss Landing Road. If you’d like more information, you can click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org, and track down the transcript for today’s Land Use Report. On the agenda is a presentation by the project engineer, who will discuss the project’s preliminary costs and environmental impacts.

If you just can’t wait until this evening to tackle some important land use issues (and don’t worry, there actually are such people), you should probably be heading immediately to the Salinas County Courthouse, where the Monterey County Planning Commission will discuss a proposed microbrewery in Carmel Valley, and the redesignation of affordable rental units to inclusionary ownership units. Again, there are more details at the KUSP website.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Information on the Cal-Am “Town Hall” meeting can be obtained from

Coastal Water Project Website
http://www.coastalwaterproject.com

Planning Commission Agenda
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/pbi/cca/pc/
2005/03-30-05/pc03-30-05a.htm

If you haven’t heard this Land Use Report before, it may be news to you that the Monterey County Board of Supervisors is updating the 1982 Monterey County General Plan, and that the Board of Supervisors has now been working on its General Plan Update for almost six years, spending upwards of $5 million dollars on the update effort so far. You won’t have been informed, perhaps, that the Board voted, by a 3-2 vote, last June, to “start over” on the Monterey County General Plan Update, throwing away the third draft prepared by its staff, and also throwing away the $5 million dollars they’d invested in the process up to that time.

While the Board voted in June 2004 to “start over” on its General Plan Update, it actually didn’t start over at that time. Instead, a coalition of eighteen local community groups developed a “Community General Plan,” which they delivered to the Board this January. A coalition of pro-development groups rewrote the “third draft” of the General Plan Update, the one the Board had rejected at their request, and they’ve submitted that rewrite, now more favorable for developers. Again, the Board did essentially nothing.

Now, however, the Board may actually be going to “start over,” as they said they would last June. They will meet on Thursday March 31st (that’s today), starting at 9:30 a.m. There are more details at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Monterey County General Plan Website
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/gpu/

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

Agenda For March 31, 2005 Meeting
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/newpage.htm

The Big Sur Land Trust is embarking on a far-sighted effort to design a Carmel River Parkway. The idea is to develop a master plan for riparian restoration, trails, and visitor services for existing parkland users, to be located at the mouth of the Carmel Valley. Planning meetings will be sponsored by the Land Trust, and will be conducted by a design team from Cal Poly Pomona’s graduate program in Landscape Architecture.

A series of meetings is scheduled, and your participation is definitely invited. All of the meetings will be held at the Carmel Mission Inn, located at 3665 Rio Road in Carmel. The first meeting is this morning, April 1st, from 10:00 to 12:30. The second meeting will be Saturday April 2nd, also from 10:00 to 12:30. The third meeting will follow the second, so it will also be held tomorrow, Saturday April 2nd, but from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. You can find out how to RSVP by visiting the KUSP website.

The development of a Carmel River Parkway is not only an “environmental” project. Visitors to the parklands of Monterey County are a major part of its tourism business, so you can think of the proposed Parkway as an “economic development” project, too. If you’re a Monterey County resident, with interests in either the environment or economic development, there’s still time to attend one of these planning sessions.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

To RSVP, please call Jo Lynn Rosbach at 831-625-5523, Ext. 100

Big Sur Land Trust Website
http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org

Carmel River Parkway Webpage
http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/index1.html