Letters to the editor

Monterey County Herald
Posted on May 14, 2007

Derail Measure A train

The saga of the legal meaning of LandWatch's initiative continues. Poor wording brings up more questions about where this runaway train may take us.

The issue of what's left of commercial, industrial and residential zoning is not at all clear. Larry Hawkins' letter tried to sweep it under the rug by saying the two land-use maps, appendix A (current designations) and appendix B (initiative classifications) do not replace each other but somehow co-exist. If that were the case, then the initiative would allow all sorts of residential areas in the county, which it clearly does not. Previous versions of general plan updates have used tables to correctly correlate these two maps. The initiative leaves that out and relies on the text. And the text states that outside community areas (97% of the unincorporated area) land is only suitable for agriculture.

In general plan law, policies must be "internally consistent." In this case, the current maps depicting land use do not match the initiative text. When that happens, text trumps maps.

This bucket of bolts is headed down the track of years of uncertainty and legal expenses for all. Derail the train.

Vote no on Measure A.

Jay Brown
Bradley