Room Enough: SOURCES USED IN THIS STUDY

It is the goal of the LandWatch study to utilize information that is both available to all County staff and residents and is routinely used in the course of planning and other public functions. The following represent the materials and sources used along with their purpose in the study:

COUNTY ASSESSOR'S TABULAR PARCEL FILE
This digital file documents all taxed property in the County. It is particularly useful since it is kept current each year and identifies the jurisdiction to which a parcel belongs; for example, it is possible to determine whether a parcel is in the unincorporated area or to which City it belongs. In addition, the file documents the land and improvement value of the parcel; therefore, if an improvement value is listed as zero, we can safely assume the parcel is vacant unless it is publicly owned or designated by zoning as open space.

COUNTY ASSESSOR'S HARD-COPY PARCEL MAPS
These paper maps remain the only reliable source of information for lots. While parcels have been digitized into a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) format, no such effort has been extended to lots. These maps were reviewed and a data table developed by LandWatch to associate lots with identified vacant parcels; these were reviewed again for their legality (please begin on Page 11 for this process) and incorporated into the study.

COUNTY ASSESSOR'S DIGITAL PARCEL MAP
The County has recently completed the digitizing of all parcels in the unincorporated area and has integrated this file with those of the cities to create a GIS-formatted digital map; these have been checked against the Assessor's tabular file to make certain they are current. Our study appended to this file other information such as additional lots, acreage and other data extracted during the study, such as the General Plan classifications listed below.

COUNTY GENERAL PLAN AND MASTER PLAN HARD-COPY MAPS
These adopted maps represent the land use classification of all property in the unincorporated parts of the County. In order for LandWatch to determine areas permitted for development, these maps were critical. While the digital parcel map has been developed, the County has not yet attached General Plan / Master Plan land use classifications to each parcel; therefore, LandWatch extracted the classifications for each parcel from these hard-copy maps and built a data table that would link to the digital County parcel map (above).

CITY GENERAL PLAN & MASTER PLAN DIGITAL OR HARD-COPY MAPS
These maps served the same purpose as the County maps discussed above. In one case, a city had digital designations for General Plan / Master Plan and it was used instead of the manual map.

COUNTY ZONING MAPS IN HARD-COPY
In order to refine the information contained in the General Plan land use classifications, it is necessary to utilize the General Plan's implementation tool, the Zoning map and Ordinance. Again, these have not been created to the parcel level in digital form, so LandWatch extracted zoning information and committed it to digital tables that could be linked to the digital parcel file. This enabled the study to determine how many dwelling units could be built on a specific lot or parcel.

CITY ZONING MAPS IN DIGITAL OR HARD-COPY
These maps served the same purpose as the County maps discussed above. The City of Pacific Grove has digital zoning maps which were used; all other cities provided hard-copy zoning maps.

LAFCO SPHERE OF INFLUENCE HARD-COPY MAPS
Most cities in Monterey County have a Sphere of Influence adopted by LAFCO; typically, a Sphere is a buffer surrounding city limits. This usually means that there is some likelihood of annexation to the City within the buffer boundaries and that this is something recognized by the County and the State.

These hard-copy boundaries provided by LAFCO were reviewed and the parcels that exist within them were identified and committed to a digital table that could be linked to the digital parcel map. Ultimately, this information was used to determine the likely acreage of development within the sphere and thus the number of dwelling units that could be built therein. This is in keeping with the LandWatch principle of focusing on city growth, extending logically within its sphere.

In the cases of Carmel, Gonzales, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Salinas and Soledad, LandWatch used only a portion of the city's adopted spheres for the purpose of development; in the case of Monterey, no portion of its sphere was used for the purpose of development. The cities of Sand City and Seaside have no sphere of influence, while Pacific Grove's sphere is limited to one parcel. The sphere of influence for Del Rey Oaks was not adjusted for this study.

FORA DATA
To extract information about the development potential at Fort Ord, LandWatch used digital maps provided by FORA, as well as information extracted from its adopted plans that address the number of new dwelling units permitted as well as the number of existing units that are slated for rehabilitation. LandWatch made no effort to determine how many units would go to a particular jurisdiction but dealt with the overall permitted totals.

PIPELINE PROJECTS
In order to determine the number of dwelling units that are likely to be created through current projects, LandWatch approached County Planning staff and the various city Planning staffs for this information. The County used its permitting system to provide a report of such projects and city staff provided oral or written lists of pipeline projects. In the case of the City of Salinas, two developers of large active projects (Creekbridge and Harrod Homes) provided the information. A full list of criteria is provided on Page 22.

US CENSUS AND AMBAG POPULATION FORECASTS
The study used data from the 2000 US Census to determine existing population and housing density and forecasts developed by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) to determine County population in the year 2020. AMBAG's population forecasts have a track record that surpasses that of the State and were thus deemed reliable for this study and were also used by the County in its General Plan process. Landwatch used the population forecast and existing persons-per-household figures to calculate the housing need in 2020.

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION
The Department of Conservation's Division of Land Resource Protection produces farmland mapping. The Division's "Monterey County Important Farmland 2000" map was used in this study to determine areas of prime agricultural land.