The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesdays, but it’s not meeting tomorrow or anytime this week. That’s true for the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, too. In order to maximize the ability of all interested parties to participate in governmental decision making, the usual rule is that Boards of Supervisors and City Councils do not meet during the week immediately following Thanksgiving (or Christmas). In fact, if you look up the yearly schedule established by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, you’ll see that the Monterey County Board of Supervisors had the same idea, when it set up its regular meeting schedule for this year.

Nonetheless, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors is holding another “special” meeting today, starting at 9:00 o’clock, to turn its attention to its six year, six million dollar General Plan Update project. With this Board, it hasn’t been a case of “hurry up and wait,” it’s been a case of “wait and hurry up.” What’s causing the hurry now, of course, is the Board’s hope that it can “beat the voters to a decision,” since a citizens’ General Plan initiative is circulating in the community.

A link to the staff report for today’s meeting is on the KUSP website. Among other things, the Board is proposing increased, not less, traffic congestion on local roads, to allow for more development than current policies would permit.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Monterey County Board of Supervisors Schedule for 2005
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/meetings.htm

Agenda for November 28th Special Board Meeting
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/specagenda112805.htm

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

Staff Report for November 28th Meeting
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/pbi/gpu/rpt/
SRBOSl_PLN050045_Study_11-28-05%20_Circulation_.pdf

Why is the Monterey County Board of Supervisors suddenly in such a hurry to update its out of date General Plan, the current version of which was adopted in 1982? As you may recall, the Board began a General Plan Update six years ago, and has spent six million dollars on the effort, so far. Speed has never been a priority. After sending back the first two drafts, the Board received a third draft General Plan Update in early 2004, with a unanimous recommendation from the Planning Commission. Because development interests didn’t like that plan, three members of the Board voted simply to discard it. At that point, the Update had taken five years, and cost five million dollars, but the Board was in no hurry. It told the staff to “start over.”

In fact, though, the staff didn’t really start over, and in January 2005, eighteen community groups surprised the Board by submitting a complete “Community General Plan,” which cut the current document from eighteen inches thick to about one inch thick, and which represented a legally adequate and fully integrated General Plan package. That did stimulate some action by the County; however, it appears to have been the submission of a General Plan initiative petition by the community groups that has finally galvanized the Board into action. The initiative would permit new growth, but wouldn’t allow developers to do whatever they want. The Board seems set on trying to head off that citizen initiative.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Initiative Text
http://www.montereycountyfarmbureau.org/General%20Plan/
Community%20General%20Plan%20Initiative%20OCR.pdf

The “Community General Plan”
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/pubs05/cgp/index.html

To get involved in the initiative effort, contact LandWatch Monterey County –

To find out more about the General Plan initiative now circulating in Monterey County, direct your internet browser to www.kusp.org. I have placed a link to the initiative in the transcript for today’s Land Use Report, and a link to the “Community General Plan,” too. This is the fully integrated General Plan package, prepared by eighteen community groups, which would (if ever adopted) provide for increased affordable housing opportunities, better protection for water resources and agricultural land, and mandate that public services and infrastructure (especially roads) would have to be in place before development occurs.

The initiative is a lot shorter than the entire “Community General Plan,” but it does seek to accomplish the same objectives, which it lists as follows:

• Give voters the right to make important land use decisions themselves.
• Enhance the quality of life of all Monterey County residents.
• Increase affordable housing opportunities for working families….
• Preserve prime agricultural land, and stop its conversion into subdivisions and shopping centers.
• Help stop ever-increasing traffic congestion.
• Make sure that an adequate water supply exists before developments are approved.
• Support … overstressed police, fire, and educational agencies.

This is not a bad list. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you a little more about how the initiative would accomplish these goals.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Initiative Text
http://www.montereycountyfarmbureau.org/General%20Plan/
Community%20General%20Plan%20Initiative%20OCR.pdf

The “Community General Plan”
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/pubs05/cgp/index.html

To get involved in the initiative effort, contact LandWatch Monterey County –

The objectives listed in the General Plan initiative now circulating in Monterey County are a textbook presentation of what some people call “smart growth.” How would the initiative actually achieve them?

First, the initiative calls for giving the voters more direct control over important land use decisions. Past practice in Monterey County has been for the Board of Supervisors to ignore what its General Plan policies say. Rancho San Juan, for instance, the largest development project in Monterey County history, would have massive traffic impacts on Highway 101. The applicable General Plan policies say that no development at Rancho San Juan should be allowed until new highway improvements are in place, to handle the new traffic. The Board of Supervisors simply amended the General Plan to eliminate this policy when it approved Rancho San Juan. As long as the Board can do that, the General Plan doesn’t really mean very much. If the initiative qualifies for the ballot, and is adopted by the voters, that sort of action by the Board of Supervisors won’t be legally possible. The voters will have to decide to change the key land use policies themselves.

Tomorrow, I’ll do a little more analysis of the proposed General Plan initiative. You can read the initiative by clicking on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org. You can sign the initiative at almost any large shopping center in Monterey County.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Initiative Text
http://www.montereycountyfarmbureau.org/General%20Plan/
Community%20General%20Plan%20Initiative%20OCR.pdf

The “Community General Plan”
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/pubs05/cgp/index.html

To get involved in the initiative effort, contact LandWatch Monterey County –

One of the key objectives of the General Plan initiative now circulating in Monterey County is to “increase affordable housing opportunities for working families….” If you’re a Monterey County resident, you know how escalating housing prices have been driving working families out of the community. And you also know that simply building more houses doesn’t cure the problem. Rapid residential growth has been characteristic of Monterey County over the last seven or eight years, and housing prices have risen dramatically during that period. Building more houses has not translated into lower cost housing. In the marketplace, he or she who has the gold gets the goods, and increasing the supply of houses, if that’s all that happens, simply means that there are more opportunities for upper income persons to purchase those houses. Average and below average income, working families aren’t able to compete.

The initiative measure demands that a significant and increased percentage of new housing be permanently set aside for purchase or rental by very low, low, and moderate income working families, and by those who have an “above moderate” income. It gives local working families “first dibs” on new housing, and has special policies to provide farmworker housing. I think it’s fair to say the initiative would not “solve” our housing problems, but it would give local working families increased affordable housing opportunities. Again, you can read the text at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Initiative Text
http://www.montereycountyfarmbureau.org/General%20Plan/
Community%20General%20Plan%20Initiative%20OCR.pdf

The “Community General Plan”
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/pubs05/cgp/index.html

To get involved in the initiative effort, contact LandWatch Monterey County –