MLK Day Event Planned

Seaside will host its annual celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Jan. 17. The day begins with a parade at 11am, starting in front of the Social Security Building on Broadway Avenue, proceding down Broadway to Fremont Avenue, and then up to the Oldemeyer Center at 986 Hilby Avenue. A program there will commence at noon and feature several guest speakers. [EJ]

The People’s Plan

More than a dozen local organizations presented their “Community General Plan Update,” to County Supervisors on Jan. 11.

The work began last June, following the Board of Supervisors’ decision to scrap the Plan and turn the rewriting over to County Counsel and the Planning Department

The groups and individuals involved in the forums said they wanted to develop a blueprint for growth consistent with the County’s Twelve Guiding Objectives, which include providing affordable housing for working families, preserving farmlands, and protecting Monterey County’s clean air, water, and natural areas. They say their growth document does that.

“In terms of routine and ongoing farming practices, there are fewer hoops to jump through,” says Carmel Valley Association’s John Dalessio. “It really makes it better and easier for farmers who want to farm as opposed to the guys who want to build subdivisions. At the same time, they can build farmworker housing.

“It provides more affordable housing than other plans in a way that makes it more likely that it will be built and will remain permanently affordable. It centers growth in four areas: Pajaro, Castroville, the Boranda corridor, and Fort Ord, and then provides space for Chualar to come up with a community plan. Also, it provides encouragement, developer incentives, for all those areas to produce mixed-use development so there won’t be a whole ton of extra traffic out there.”

Dalessio hopes the Supes will adopt the growth plan. “If they don’t, my rallying cry has always been: ‘We’re not going away.’”

This, he says, could mean legal challenges or could result in a voter initiative to adopt the Community GPU.

The growth plan will be available online, in libraries and in copy stores next week. For more information, check out www.8of10monterey.com/pages/community.html or call Dalessio at 659-7046. [JL]