Public Arts Projects for Marina

The Marina Arts Council will unveil its ambitious plans to develop public art and architecture projects throughout the city this Sunday, March 14, at the UC-MBEST Atrium Gallery.

The nonprofit Marina Arts Council contracted with the city in January 2003 to be the lead agent on such projects as a bike path, a sculpture garden, a cultural arts district, museums, plazas and programs in the schools. Some of those projects are already underway.

“Our main goal is to provide the city with a master arts plan,” says council president Candy Myers-Owen, who also sits on the city’s economic development commission.

Myers-Owens says that the nonprofit group is being paid by the city for projects such as Higher Ground—an arts program that began last October in Marina’s Compton Middle School—and a design for the Fifth Street Bicycle Path, which will connect the Rec Trail with the planned University Villages development. Both of those projects, as well as several others, will be on display Sunday at the Atrium, 3180 Imjin Rd (at the Marina municipal airport). The ceremony begins at 4pm; wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served, and Marina Mayor Ila Mettee-McCutchon will make a presentation. Call 884-9082. [SF]

PG Golf Clubhouse Fight Continues

A recently disqualified initiative in Pacific Grove may be back in play. Last week, a petition calling for a public vote on the proposed expansion of PG’s golf clubhouse was thrown out by the city council because some legally required language was missing. Organizer Lee Willoughby says she is in the process of rewriting the petition and hopes to collect enough votes to resubmit it in the next few weeks.

The election code requires that signers of a petition be informed that the use of their signature for any other purpose than for qualification of a ballot measure is a misdemeanor.

Willoughby, who says she collected 1,600 signatures, says she was never informed such language was required for the initiative.

“It was certified by the county registrar of voters, then certified by our city election official, Ross Hubbard, then he recertified it, and then he found that we didn’t have this disclaimer,” she says. “When we went in November 2003 to submit the initiative to the city clerk, they should have required that we submit a certificate. The city attorney didn’t ask us to, and our attorney didn’t catch it.”

The project involves a $3.5 million expansion of the current golf clubhouse on PG’s municipal course.

City attorney David Fleishman said that the city clerk is not permitted by law to render legal advice, and that it is not the responsibility of the city elections official to help residents put together an initiative.

“He’s supposed to have a neutral role in this as am I,” he said. “My read of the case law is when a ballot measure initiative has a defect like this, the elections official has a legal obligation to reject it.” [BW]

Back to the Future

Would-be developers say the latest draft of the updated county general plan—GPU 3—is too strict. Environmentalists says it has no teeth.

Citizens are invited to join in the heated discussion Thursday, March 11, at the county Planning Commission’s second hearing on the newest version of the 20-year blueprint for growth, which is now four years and $4 million in the making.

Beginning at 9am, the Planning Commission will tackle “quality of life” issues, a theme that’s intended to focus on the following areas of the plan: Coastal and inland area section policies, Community Area urban design concepts, infrastructure concurrency with development, environmental and scenic resource protection and recreational trails.

However, the concept of recreational trails has been eliminated from GPU 3.

The commission’s public hearings continue on March 17 at 9am, and on March 22 at 6pm. Call 755-5352 for info. [JL]