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From the Monterey County
Herald Commentary - The Herald's View Compromise on General Plan? Like a man on a mission, Tom Carvey of Common Ground has led opposition to the slow-growth Community General Plan Initiative. In debates, he passionately presents himself as the defender of freedom and the American way while attacking the initiative as a tree-huggers' land grab. As an advocate, he can be expected to take an extreme position, but at times he has been intent on demonizing initiative supporters. So it was encouraging that Carvey took a conciliatory tone rather than an "I told you so" stance after a federal appeals court opted not to let the initiative onto the June ballot. While legal machinations could get the initiative on the ballot in November, Carvey suggested last week that the extra months could serve as a cooling-down period allowing the general plan combatants to find some, well, common ground. This late in the game, the overture may be disingenuous but it could be worth a try. Carvey's coalition of business and farming interests has a decent chance of losing if the initiative ever comes to a vote. Without admitting it, they seem to understand that. Their courtroom victory was part of a stalling tactic based on a technicality, not on land-use issues. Two other California initiatives and the local referendum intended to stop the Rancho San Juan project have now been blocked because of a federal appeals court ruling that the petitions should have been in Spanish as well as English. With other measures seemingly in jeopardy, it would be a service to Monterey County and voters in general if the court would revisit the subject quickly and issue much clearer direction than it has. The leading group behind the Community General Plan Initiative, LandWatch Monterey County, has no plan to start a bilingual petition drive to qualify the measure for November. There simply isn't enough time. Instead it's hoping to persuade the appellate court to reverse its retroactive 2-1 ruling on the English-Spanish question. Side issues aside, LandWatch and the other environmental and community groups behind the initiative also should return to the table in the meantime and rejoin the county's effort to create a general plan. That tortuous process resulted first in a plan that business interests essentially vetoed and then to the more business-friendly plan scheduled, at long last, to move to public hearings this summer. When it became clear that development interests were driving that process, the LandWatch forces stepped away and went the initiative route. Now, with that move on indefinite hold, they might as well accept Carvey's olive branch and see if there is room for any compromise. Initiative supporters, who have done some demonizing of their own, have argued for months that their plan isn't radically different from the Board of Supervisors plan. In that case, it makes sense for them to put their powers of persuasion to the test and see if they can move the county plan their way. Resolving the biggest sticking point ˜ how difficult it should be to amend the plan ˜ would require some serious movement from both sides. Mission impossible? Probably. But for the first time in a long time, there's at least a hint of compromise in the air. Copyright (c) 2006 The Monterey County Herald |