<></>Desalination is complicated, but the actual process of creating drinking water from the sea may be child’s play compared to the bureaucratic machinations required for a private developer to get permission to do it.

In order to build the Ocean View Plaza—a proposed 190,000-square-foot retail and condominium project on Monterey’s Cannery Row—the project’s development company, Cannery Row Marketplace LLC, must build a desal plant to provide water.

Yet the California Coastal Commission doesn’t like the idea of a private entity profiting from a public resource, i.e., water. So, the Commission requires the formation of a “community service district” to manage desal plants. State law also requires the developer find a municipal sponsor to oversee the district’s management.

Whew. Still reading? Here comes the really tricky part.

With an express guarantee from the developer that there would be “a minimal impact” on city resources, the Monterey City Council agreed to sponsor this unprecedented community service district, which will manage a future desal plant, providing water to future inhabitants and tourists in the Ocean View Plaza.

“I understand that this is an important project for the City to move forward with but I was somewhat reluctant to vote for it,” says Councilman Jeff Haferman. “The way it was presented to us was that it will only be beneficial—that the developer will take on the financial burdens.”

The only way to create such a district is to receive approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County (LAFCO), a board charged with overseeing incorporations of cities, formations of special districts and the like.

To further complicate matters, Monterey’s staff had to push for a LAFCO hearing before Jan. 1 because of a new state law that went into effect this year. The law requires that most community service districts—like the one proposed for Cannery Row—require its residents to vote for its board members. But the hotel project hasn’t been built. It has no residents.

So on Dec. 27, LAFCO convened for a special meeting on the formation of a government entity to manage a desal plant on Cannery Row. The special district was approved by a 7-1 vote, and will be governed by the less rigorous 2005 version of the law.

Of course, the project’s real test will come when it goes before the Coastal Commission later this year.

Commissioner Dave Potter, also a county supervisor, says he can’t comment on the project until it comes before the state board. But he has indicated that he would prefer to see one large desal plant rather than see a proliferation of desal facilities along the coast.

“But really it’s more about the density of the whole Ocean View project than the desal,” Potter says, adding that “the commission’s issue has been the taking of a public resource, a la ocean water and turning it into water for private gain.”

Three small desal plants already operate in the Sanctuary. One, located at Duke Energy in Moss Landing, provides water to run the power plant. A second is managed by the Marina Coast Water District. The third supplies water used to flush toilets in the Aquarium.

Regardless of the Ocean View Plaza’s ultimate fate, the formation of this community services district for a private developer’s benefit has some civic leaders worried.

“Now anyone can come to us and say we want us to form a community services district,” Haferman says.

Monterey City Manager Fred Meurer disagrees.

“It’s an unusual case because it’s a very large parcel of land,” Meurer says. “People are not going to start forming special districts just so they can build a desal plant for their homes. I’m not worried about it being a precedent here in Monterey because we simply don’t have that many other large parcels left.”

But, he says, would a theoretical precedent be negative?

<>“Let’s assume that it does set a precedent,” Meurer says. We live in an area desperately in need of water. I don’t see the creation of new water sources as a problem.” </>