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

April 4 , 2005

L E T T E R S

Editor:

Our board of developers, er, supervisors recent unanimous passage of the Pebble Beach development came as no surprise to anyone. I guess the supervisors bought into Clint Eastwood's promotion of the project as "saving the forest" by bulldozing 17,000 trees and otherwise desecrating this sensitive area by building luxury homes and yet another golf course. Did I mention this was passed in the face of recent notification by the Coastal Commission that such action was illegal?

What did surprise most everyone was new supervisor Jerry Smith's effort to pass the county's general plan, and big surprise here, with the developer's group recommendations in mind, when nobody knew such an action was even being considered. Fortunately, the rest of the supervisors put a stop to this illegal proposal which would have been reversed by the courts in any event.

Who could miss the irony in the supes taking a swipe this same day at the grand jury report card which gave them very low marks (I'd say a failing grade), by saying that this citizen fact-finding board did not have the facts.

Susan Goldbeck
Pacific Grove