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By RODERIC McMAHAN
SOAPBOX
LandWatch Monterey County supports The Salinas Californian's call for a dialogue on a General Plan Update that focuses on the city-centered growth objectives adopted by the Board of Supervisors. Indeed, for the past five years LandWatch has reached out to business and trade groups such as Common Ground to seek accord on housing and growth management issues. For example, the comprehensive agreement we negotiated with Common Ground includes this key growth management principle:
The future growth and development of the county should be directed, compact and phased, and should be planned with desirable long-term growth patterns in mind. A priority for future growth and development should be for infill into existing urban areas that include the existing city limits of all county cities; the unincorporated areas of Pajaro, Castroville and Boronda, within existing redevelopment areas; and the county lands on the former Fort Ord.
This reasonable policy would help protect productive agricultural land and promote residential development where local governments could provide police, fire and other public services efficiently. This is neither "no-growth" nor "slow-growth." It is planned growth that will strengthen our communities.
Regrettably, Common Ground now seems to support the conversion of 10,000 or more acres of Salinas Valley prime farmland into sprawling subdivisions with all the associated traffic impacts and strains on local government. Such unchecked development provides no guarantee that affordable or workforce housing will be built. On the contrary, developments such as Seaside Highlands are often approved without regard to the needs of working families.
Though they go by different names, Common Ground, the developers' Refinement Group and 21st Century Solutions all represent the same group of elite special interests which wants no constraints on their ability to profit from urban sprawl. This is not surprising, considering that an acre of farmland is worth roughly $20,000 while an acre of residential property is worth 10 times that. If they succeed, more than $2 billion would be handed to the special interests Common Ground and other groups represent.
When it became clear that the Board of Supervisors elected not to make the choice between the special interests that support free-market sprawl and the public interests that support city-centered growth, LandWatch met with 17 community groups to work on an alternative plan. This "Community General Plan Update" will accommodate all of the growth projected for the county in the next 20 years by converting only 1,112 acres of prime farmland. LandWatch's report, "Room Enough," shows there is plenty of undeveloped land within cities and developed unincorporated areas to provide 40,093 new housing units. This would accommodate the expected population increase of 126,000 people by 2020.
LandWatch was formed to advocate for the public interest, for land-use policies that build healthy and safe communities, guarantee workforce housing, conserve natural resources and save taxpayer dollars. We want to improve the quality of life for everyone, not just the elite.
So, yes, let's talk about the future of Monterey County in the context of good planning principles adopted by the Board of Supervisors. But let's not forget the private interests that want to profit at the public's expense -- to the tune of $2 billion. And it's not easy for some to put the greater public good before personal profit with that kind of a windfall on the table.
RODERIC McMAHAN is president of LandWatch Monterey County.
Originally published in the Salinas Californian Monday, November 22, 2004
posted 11.26.04
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