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COUNTY GENERAL PLAN UPDATE

From The Carmel Pine cone

General plan heads to county supervisors

By KIMBERLY WHITE

Published: April 30, 2004

AFTER YEARS of wrangling--and despite some 11th-hour protests regarding affordable housing, preservation of farmland and how future development will affect the environment--the Monterey County Planning Commissioners voted 9-1 Wednesday to send the 2004 draft General Plan to the board of supervisors.

The board, which will review the document and a lengthy environmental impact report, has set a deadline of July 1 to finalize the new General Plan.

"They are on target for accomplishing that with the planning commission action yesterday," project planner Lynn Burgess said.

Over the last four years, Burgess estimated $4 million has been spent on everything from legal counsel and consultants to printing costs and responding to public comments for different facets of the report--including two drafts of the EIR.

Commissioner Miguel Errea, a south county rancher, cast the lone "no" vote, saying the document should undergo further review to make sure it won't harm agribusiness. "This is not being done in a vacuum," retorted Commissioner Martha Diehl, who made a motion to accept the draft while admitting the commission does not completely understand the EIR and all its ramifications. "We are merely making a recommendation."

Commissioner Laurence Hawkins seconded her motion, saying that although the plan is in "various shades of gray," he is satisfied with their work. "The board will make the final cuts, and it may come back to us," he added.

Burgess said the board will meet Tuesday, May 4, to decide when to conduct hearings and make recommendations. Although the commissioners felt they could not review the final EIR and still make the board's deadline, they did review earlier drafts of the document , as well as 75 letters from the public related to it, and responded to a slew of public comments related to the plan as a whole, Burgess said.

The board may determine that the EIR needs further scrutiny and, if so, it will be sent back to the commission for more studies. County counsel Wendy Strimling noted the final EIR will include responses to residents' comments, and if there are many substantial changes to the document, law requires that it be sent back to the commission.

If that happens, Burgess said, approval of the updated general plan would be put back to August.