Tomorrow, the Monterey City Council will consider a number of land use items. If you’re a resident of the City of Monterey, and would like to get acquainted with some of the land use policy issues facing the City, you could do worse than to get yourself down to the Monterey City Hall at 7:00 o’clock tomorrow evening.

Frequent listeners know that I’m a believer in “self-government,” which only works when we get involved ourselves. Expecting our governmental institutions to do what we like, if we don’t actively participate in the process, is a kind of wishful thinking. Bad government (and we’ve got lots of examples of it, at every level) is not best combated by withdrawal and revulsion. In fact, plunging into the governmental process to make it work right is the only antidote.

Tomorrow, the Monterey City Council will consider an appeal from a decision of the City’s Architectural Review Committee. It will consider General Plan Amendments for the Cannery Row area, and a rezoning of State Parks Property located adjacent to the Ocean Harbor House, on Surf Way, and the Monterey Beach Resort Hotel. It will also consider the Harbor Land Use Plan, and a resolution opposing spraying for the Brown Apple Moth.

Getting personally engaged in local government is the best way to make sure our communities grow and develop the way we like. There’s a lot to get engaged with tomorrow evening in Monterey.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

October 2, 2007 Agenda, Monterey City Council
http://www.monterey.org/ccncl/ agendas/2007/071002.pdf

Mobilehome park residents are a kind of “mixed breed” where land use tenure issues are involved. The term “tenure” refers to who owns the land. Usually, a person is either a “renter” or a “homeowner.” A renter has occupancy rights over the structure that he or she inhabits, but someone else owns that structure, and owns the land on which it is situated. A “homeowner” owns both the residential structure and the land upon which that residence is built. Condominium ownership is a type of homeownership, though condominiums can, of course, be rented to another.

Mobilehomes are different. The “structure,” the mobilehome “coach,” is owned by the resident, but the “space,” on which the structure is placed, is owned by someone else. The mobilehome owner rents or leases that space. That means that mobilehome owners are particularly vulnerable to abuse from the landowners, because if the rents are raised unfairly, the mobilehome owner can’t “just move.” Finding a place to move that “coach” is often very difficult.

Converting mobilehome parks into an “ownership” status, something like a condominium ownership, is one way to deal with this problem, but the processes that allow that conversion to ownership can be abused by park owners. A bill now sitting on the Governor’s desk, AB 1542, would help mobilehome residents. It’s co-authored by Assembly Member John Laird, and if you think it’s a good bill, now’s the time to tell the Governor to sign it. There’s more below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Text of AB 1542
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/
ab_1501-1550/ab_1542_bill_20070919_enrolled.html

Analysis of AB 1542
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_1501-
1550/ab_1542_cfa_20070711_144403_sen_comm.html

You can email the Governor, too
http://gov.ca.gov/interact

Other contact information for Governor Schwarzenegger

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol 1st Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 445-4633
Telephone: (916) 445-2841

The City of Monterey Architectural Review Committee is meeting today. You can get more information on the KUSP website, at www.kusp.org.

Here’s the official description of what the City’s Architectural Review Committee does:

“Architectural Review Committee review is to encourage and promote good development that is related to the setting and established character of the surrounding area or neighborhood. To accomplish this, the ARC will review all areas of a proposal that influence outside appearance. Access, on-site circulation, grading, tree impacts, building placement, landscape areas, landscape planting, architectural style, bulk, mass, color and signs are evaluated for conformance with adopted design guidelines, tree protection standards and neighborhood compatibility. Applications may be approved as submitted, continued for further study, denied, or approved subject to conditions, specified changes, additions or deletions.”

Such a system doesn’t exist everywhere, as you might guess. The system requires an individual wanting to build a single house to get a community “sign off” before proceeding. Is that good? That’s what a community would need to decide, before setting up such a procedure. The comprehensive nature of architectural review in the City of Monterey demonstrates the broad sweep of the so-called “police power.”

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

City of Monterey Website
http://www.monterey.org/

Overview of work of Architectural Review Committee
http://www.monterey.org/boards/arc.html

October 3, 2007 Agenda, Architectural Review Committee
http://www.monterey.org/boards/arc/
agendas/2007/1003arcagenda.pdf

Monterey City Code
http://66.113.195.234/CA/Monterey/index.htm

Normally, local governments can use their “police powers” to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their residents, and the breadth of those “police powers” is very great. In general, local government officials can act on any matter that is reasonably related to public health, safety, or welfare. Regulations governing the outside appearance of new homes are within that police power. And if that’s true, surely the rules governing pesticide application ought to be within the local police power, too, wouldn’t you think?

Well, there’s an exception to the general rule in the case of pesticides. State government establishes the powers of local government, and the state government has specifically taken away the normal “police power” right of local governments to regulate pesticide use. That’s why the Monterey City Council was considering a “resolution” on Tuesday, asking the state not to spray for the Brown Apple Moth, instead of just deciding what would be done inside their city. And that’s why certain residents of Moss Landing have been victimized by nearby farmers who are exposing them to highly toxic methyl bromide and other chemicals.

To get back some local control over this genuine health, safety, and welfare concern, state law needs to change. Assembly Member John Laird has been working on the Brown Apple Moth spraying issue. You might want to let him know your concerns about pesticide issues in general.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Assembly Member John Laird Website
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a27/

Assembly Member Laird’s Brown Apple Moth efforts
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/
members/a27/moth.htm

Salinas Californian article on Moss Landing Pesticide use
http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20070913/NEWS01/709130335/1002

The City of Marina is at the development bull’s-eye in Monterey County, and is particularly notable for the large amount of residential development slated to take place. At least three major residential projects are moving ahead simultaneously. The “good news,” from a land use policy perspective, is that the Marina Urban Growth Boundary, adopted by the voters in November 2000, will make certain that this new development will be within the existing city limits, and that most of it will be on the former Fort Ord.

Besides the large residential subdivisions, the City is also considering what might be called the “redevelopment” of an area that the Marina planners refer to as “downtown.” Now, Marina does not currently have a “downtown” the way the City of Santa Cruz does, or the way Monterey does, or even the way that the City of Salinas does. The Marina “downtown” area is adjacent to Reservation Road and Del Monte Boulevard, two highway-like streets, whose historic mission has been to get people somewhere else. Seventy five percent of Marina’s current businesses and residents are located within a half-mile of the corridor along these two major streets. This will continue to be the case even as the new subdivisions proceed. In other words, Marina has a chance actually to build a “downtown,” by transforming its strip commercial past into a more pedestrian-oriented and people friendly future.

For Marina residents, now’s the time to get involved.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Marina website
http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/

To contact citizens working on Marina downtown issues, I recommend that interested persons contact LandWatch Monterey County
http://www.landwatch.org.