The KUSP Land Use Report #38: Salinas Complains About The County’s Plans

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Gary Patton, Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County, presents the following Land Use Report. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of our sponsors.

The City of Salinas has a bone to pick with Monterey County. Mayor Anna Caballero laid out the city’s complaints at a meeting of the Monterey County Planning Commission held on Wednesday April 10th.

The county’s draft General Plan says that agricultural land in the Salinas Valley should be preserved, and that future annexations of agricultural land to the cities should be limited to 3,000 acres in total, for the entire Salinas Valley, over the next twenty years. Salinas wants to absorb more than 3,000 acres of agricultural land all by itself, and the cities of Soledad, Gonzales, Greenfield, and King City also have significant expansion plans. The difference between the county’s suggested 3,000-acre limit for the entire valley, and the desires of the cities to expand outward, leads to a potential conflict.

In fact, the county has no legal ability to tell the cities what to do about future annexations. The draft General Plan Update, and its 3,000-acre figure, makes an important point. If Monterey County wants to maintain its agricultural industry, the lands that are the basis of that industry need to be preserved. But in terms of actual limits, the county can’t do it. There is a governmental agency that can, the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO. Hopefully, the Salinas Valley cities, and the County, will work through LAFCO to achieve the proper balance.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

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