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FORA Design Guidelines Are Too Weak

November 19, 2004

Chairman Jerry Smith and Members
Board of Directors, Fort Ord Reuse Authority
100 12th Street, Building 2880
Marina, CA 93933

RE: Highway 1 Design Guidelines – November 19, 2004 Agenda Item #6d

Dear Chairman Smith and Board Members:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors and members of LandWatch Monterey County. LandWatch has about 1,000 members, countywide. Our mission is to promote and inspire sound land use policy at the local and regional levels, through grassroots community action.

This brief letter is to urge the Authority to strengthen the Highway 1 Corridor Design Guidelines, by replacing the word “should” with the word “shall” where key design concepts are outlined, and to insure that a common an integrated approach, emphasizing viewshed protection, is made a condition of all developments that impact on the Highway 1 Corridor. The current text of the Design Guidelines explicitly reserves the key decisions to each jurisdiction acting separately. LandWatch believes that FORA should establish a basic and consistent standard which will apply in all the local jurisdictions, and that viewshed protection should be the touchstone.

LandWatch has reviewed a letter submitted to FORA by Congress Member Sam Farr, dated September 21, 2004. We believe that the concerns listed by Congress Member Farr should be addressed by FORA, prior to the final adoption of the Highway 1 Corridor Design Guidelines. We do not believe that it is “too late” to address these issues, and that the economic reuse of the Fort Ord lands will be benefited by such an approach.

Thank you for taking our views into consideration.

cc:     Members, LandWatch Board of Directors
         Congress Member Sam Farr
         Interested Persons

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posted 11.22.04