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From the Monterey County Herald
Serving Monterey County and the Salinas Valley

Posted on Thu, Mar. 23, 2004

Affordable housing plans criticized
PLANNING COMMISSIONERS COMPLETE PUBLIC HEARINGS

By JOE LIVERNOIS
jlivernois@montereyherald.com

From the obscure community of Pleyto to the overcrowded farmworker community of Las Lomas, residents of Monterey County were asking one question at Monday night's general plan hearing: Is there room for the working stiff or will the county become an exclusive haven for the rich?

The county's proposed new general plan is nearing completion after more than four years of discussion, and about the only thing virtually everyone seems to agree about is that the plan does not encourage new affordable housing.

The county's Planning Commission completed four long days of public hearings on the proposed plan Monday night. Commissioners are expected to make their recommendations on the plan to the Board of Supervisors next month. The plan is a document charting out the county's growth for the next 20 years.

On the pro-growth side, opponents of the existing plan said Monday that the proposal is crammed with so many limiting policies that new development in the county will be virtually impossible to build.

"There's a big pent-up demand," said Tom Carvey of Common Ground, a group that generally favors easing development restrictions. "We ask that you make land available."

On the slow-growth side, opponents of the existing plan said Monday that the plan is too liberal in allowing new development. But they also said the plan does not include strong policies that encourage new homes that average-income people can afford to purchase.

"Just opening up three times the land available for development will not create new affordable housing," said Gary Patton of LandWatch Monterey County.

Meanwhile, property owners in far-flung communities like Pleyto and Las Lomas on Monday pleaded with planning commissioners to ease restrictions that would allow more affordable homes in their communities.

While affordable housing was a key issue during the debate Monday, other property owners in the county said the general plan, as written, would place undue hardship on them.

In particular, landowners said zoning restrictions that create 40-acre minimum lots in areas considered farmland would ruin their future plans.

The Massera family of Prunedale, for instance, said the plan, as proposed, would bar them from parceling off five acres of their approximately 25-acre property so that a house could be built for their children.

Over the years, the Masseras said, they have watched houses sprout up on half-acre and five-acre parcels around them. They have resisted the urge to subdivide, but they said they want to set aside five acres for another family home.

"My brother and I have always dreamed of raising our families on this property," said Carla Massera. "There are no words to describe how devastating to the family this would be."

"Please think of the little guy," added her father, Jack Massera.

However, other residents urged planning commissioners to hold the line against the continuing subdivision of larger sections of land in the county.

"People don't come from all over the world to visit Monterey County to visit subdivisions and strip malls," said Larry Espinosa of Prunedale. "The general plan should set high standards, but it also should allow reasonable exceptions for the little guy."

Also on Monday, members of what has been referred to as the "refinement group" made one last pleading to planning commissioners to endorse their proposals.

The refinement group was established last year by the Board of Supervisors in an effort to place the various competing interests in the same room to slug out a compromise plan.

After several meetings, a group of slow-growth members of the refinement group quit, saying the group was stacked in favor of developers and other special interests.

The county stopped supporting the group, but the remaining members continued to meet and have submitted more than 100 pages of recommendations they believe will improve the general plan.

Planning commissioners will be meeting in subcommittees during the coming weeks and are expected to present their final recommendations to the Board of Supervisors late next month.

The commission will accept written comments from the public about the plan until Friday.

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Joe Livernois can be reached at 753-6753.