MONTEREY COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE POLICY (831) 755-5065 P.O. BOX 180, SALINAS, CALIFORNIA 93902 JAMES J. COLANGELO ASSISTANT COUNTY ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER   Memorandum TO: Land Use Advisory Committees & Neighborhood Design Review Committees FROM: Lynn Burgess, General Plan Update Team IPI DATE: May 7, 2001 SUBJECT: Notice of Upcoming Meetings on the General Plan Update The purpose of this memorandum is to: 1) Summarize our progress to date with the Land Use Advisory Committees and Neighborhood Design Review Committees on the General Plan Update, and 2) Outline the process to identify and address possible amendments to the Area Plans and Local Coastal Plans and to review property owner requests for parcel-specific changes to the land use map. Your assistance in continuing to define and focus your Committee's issues will help keep the overall General Plan schedule on track and ensure that each area of the County is well represented. Progress to Date Since January, County staff has met with all of the Land Use Advisory Committees and Neighborhood Design Review Committees throughout the County to present an overview of the General Plan Update and to discuss the vision for each planning area and what land use issues need to be addressed to realize that vision. In summary, the Committee discussions revealed a high degree of support for retaining the rural character and resource protection goals embodied in the existing Area Plans and Local Coastal Plans. There were concerns expressed about how well the plan goals have been carried out and enforced over time. In order to stay on the General Plan schedule, we plan to complete this round of meetings by July, then return in August for your review of the Draft General Plan. To assist in this effort, the County has hired Tad Stearn, a Principal Planner with Pacific Municipal Consultants, to facilitate the meeting discussions. How Your Committee Can Help As you can imagine, we will have many meetings to attend in a relatively short period of time, so it will be important to make the most of the time we have. To stay focused and to minimize the need for follow-up meetings, we ask that each Land Use Advisory Committee and Neighborhood Design Review Committee prepare a list of specific issues you would like to discuss in the next round of meetings. This list will help form the meeting agenda and will allow staff to better prepare for the meeting by conducting any needed research ahead of time. We would like to focus on specific land use or policy changes to Area Plans and Local Coastal Plans in this next round of meetings, with this next round of meetings, with zoning amendments considered at a separate set of Committee meetings later this fall. Please submit your list of land use issues to Lynn Burgess, Monterey County General Plan Update Team, P.O. Box 180, Salinas, California 939021, by May 31 2001. We will be contacting the Committee Chairs over the coming week to set up meeting dates for June or July. Thank you for your continuing interest and participation in the General Plan Update. Your Committee plays a vital role in ensuring that the final plan truly reflects the unique and special character of the County's planning areas. If you have questions, please call me at (831) 759-6601 or Tad Stearn at (831) 644-9174, ext. 17.