Subject: Referendum on GPU4

To the Editor:

The Leagues of Women Voters of the Salinas Valley and Monterey Peninsula support the Rancho San Juan Referendum and the Community General Plan Initiative. Up to now, the Board of Supervisors has prevented these measures from going before the voters.

The Board’s approval of the fourth effort to develop a General Plan (GPU4) enables Rancho San Juan to be vested. It also makes GPU4 the prevailing plan until voters have a chance to ratify or repeal it. This would allow unacceptable development to move forward pending the public's eventual vote. And we note that even an election date is uncertain.

A referendum on GPU4 puts that plan on hold until a vote of the people, and it guarantees that the voters have a right to vote on the Plan before it goes into effect, in a clear and meaningful election. By contrast, the Board's action adopts the Plan with a legally unenforceable statement that it will submit that Plan to a possible "repeal" by the voters six months from now -- in which a "yes" vote means you are against the Plan.

We urge the public to join the Leagues in signing the petition for the referendum.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Maxner, President                              MaryEllen Dick, President
LWV of the Monterey Peninsula                       LWV of the Salinas Valley