Club will fight for adoption of Community General Plan for Monterey County

Phase one of the Community General Plan (CGP) process, identified by south county newspapers as "...democracy in the making" concluded in Marina on November 14. The five CGP Forums collectively drew more than 700 participants, who spent more than 2,500 hours working on a new General Plan for Monterey County.

When completed by the CGP team, the plan will be presented to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors (BOS) for their consideration and action. It will be the only plan before the Board that was developed during open meetings in every district of the County.

As described by professional planner Terry Watt, the CGP will provide more affordable housing than other concepts considered by the BOS, while limiting new development primarily to established cities and urban areas. Further, the plan will require infrastructure to be in place, including roads, sewers and proven water, before development can proceed. The Community General Plan precisely defines protected open space.

Eighteen organizations, including your Ventana Chapter, helped to organize and run the CGP Forums. These Forums were held in response to the BOS decision to junk five years and $5 million worth of planning process, and to move the development of the general plan behind closed doors. Rather than accept this developer-sponsored abandonment, community, resident and environmental organizations came together to develop a true Community General Plan.

Eighty percent of the public has approved the principles on which the plan is based. The Board of Supervisors themselves have approved these principles. The groups sponsoring this massive effort are committed to seeing that the Community General Plan is adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

< back to all issues