At its regular meeting scheduled for Oct. 15, the Monterey City Council will either approve or reject the newest version of a controversial plan for a mixed-use development on Cannery Row, set to fill the now-vacant space where the San Xavier Cannery once stood.

Ocean View Plaza has, over the past several years, elicited high emotion. Its placement on the calendar--three weeks before city elections--further intensifies an already fraught decision. On Aug. 25, 1999, the same city council unanimously rejected a similar, larger plan--then called the Cannery Row Marketplace--presented by the same developers. As the plan stands now, the Ocean View Plaza is a 381,000-square-foot mix of retail spaces, restaurants, posh condominiums, some token affordable housing, parking garages and public plazas, designed in and around replicated versions of the former cannery.

Besides its scale and the potential traffic effects, one other factor sets the project apart. A key element to the plan calls for a desalination plant that would convert 50,000 gallons of seawater into 25,000 gallons of potable water every day.

Even if the city council approves the Ocean View Plaza plan, there are still several echelons of approval required of the desalination plant. Bill Fell, chief planner for the city of Monterey, says the desal plant faces judgement from a half-dozen agencies. Lined up to inspect the plans for various ecological, design and technical parameters are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the California Coastal Commission, the Regional Water Quality Board, the county environmental heath department and the city.

"It really boils down to a policy question," Fell says. "And that''s a question that will go to seven different agencies."

The Sanctuary, which would have to authorize permits for the plant, has said it would prefer to see one big desalination plant rather than a slew of little ones. This is also suggested in the so-called Plan B framework, which Assemblyman Fred Keeley has proposed to provide water to the Peninsula without damming the Carmel River. Plan B calls for a big desalination plant at Moss Landing that would take advantage of electricity from the power plant and outfall pipes already in place. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, located near the Ocean View Plaza site, already operates its own desalination plant.

Rachel Saunders, spokesperson for the Sanctuary, says staff worked with consultants on the specifications of the Ocean View Plaza discharge pipe. Saunders says the Sanctuary can attach conditions to any permits it authorizes for the discharge of concentrated saltwater or for seabed disturbance. While the output from the plant would be relatively small, there remains a concern for the proliferation of desalination plants that could, in theory, follow this one.

"It''s much harder to keep track of many points of discharge," Saunders says.

The California Coastal Commission is also concerned about the precedent that could be set by allowing another small desalination plant. In a June 26, 2001 letter to Fell, a Coastal Commission planner wrote, "...private desalination projects, such as the one proposed by this project, may jeopardize opportunities to allocate limited water capacities and manage growth in accordance with regional objectives."

The Ocean View Plaza plan was last reviewed by the city council on Aug. 13 after a revamped plan had been recommended for approval by the planning commission. The Oct. 15 version includes the removal of an entire building from the previous blueprint. That eliminated two condominiums and retail space, replacing it with more plaza space. The developers also sought to ameliorate concerns about traffic by putting a $2 million line of credit on the table--money that would fund city plans to reconfigure the Lighthouse Avenue corridor. The city would ultimately have to repay the developers for any improvements.

After working on multiple plans for seven years, project architect Allen Robinson was reluctant to make odds on Oct. 15. He is aware that Election Day follows closely, an election where three of the contended seats are held by two incumbents-- Mayor Dan Albert and Councilperson Ruth Vreeland--both of whom seek reelection.