THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Among the many local issues of concern to our League, the development of affordable housing for the Monterey Peninsula is one of the most important. Last week the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) Board, after two and one half years of study and public input, voted to adopt as policy the same, minimum (20%) affordable housing requirement that they had planned all along.
The San Jose Mercury of January 10 said, "The Battle of Ft. Ord ended with a whimper...after Rep. Sam Farr abandoned his quest to require that 40% of the 6,000 planned homes be priced at below market rates." It is clear that the current Board is not responsive to the needs of the community to house its workforce.
The FORA Board of Directors consists of thirteen voting members (three members of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, two city council members each from the cities of Marina and Seaside (one of which is the mayor) and city council members each from the cities of Carmel, Del Rey Oaks, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Salinas, and Sand City).
In our July 7, 2003, letter to Chair Jerry Smith and the FORA Board, the LWVMP strongly supported the efforts of Representative Sam Farr. Jean Esary, our housing chair, spent many hours on the Workforce Housing Project Full Working Group. She indicated "...their recommendations were not supported by the FORA Board. All of the consultants' advice indicated that more lower priced housing could be built, given the political will and some creative effort in finding financial subsidies. If FORA Board members were serious about affordable housing, they would make a commitment to set aside a portion of any new water that they gain for this housing. The FORA staff and Marina Coast Water District are studying alternatives for increasing the overall water supply, including conservation, required to support the Base Reuse Plan; however, the staff did not recommend that the Board take action at this time regarding water for affordable housing."
The transfer of this public land is a great opportunity for the jurisdictions to provide affordable housing for the teachers, police, firefighters and health care professionals who serve our communities. The high cost of housing on the peninsula impacts the recruiting and retention of high quality employees. Instead, the land is being given away to developers building upscale homes that are sold to the highest bidder.
At Friday's meeting Robin Tokmakian (past president of LWVMP), tried to address the Board as a private citizen and in the end submitted the following statement: "...the Base Realignment and Closure Process (BRAC) is once again upon us. One of the eight criteria used for evaluation is he cost of base operations, including manpower. Through the efforts of Congressman Farr, the employees that work at DLI, NPS, NRL, Defense Manpower Facility and FNMOC receive a supplement to live and work on the Peninsula. Thus, it costs the government more money to staff its facilities in this area. The costs will only increase if affordable housing is not built for a portion of these workers...I do not have to tell you it would be a great loss to this community if this workforce went elsewhere...without a specific plan in place for increasing the affordable housing, how will the BRAC commission know that there will be ample affordable housing for this workforce into the future? Specific plans need to be laid out with specific, concrete goals (50%) on the amount of affordable housing that will be built and where it will be built. If such steps are not taken today to move forward, you have wasted an incredible and never-to-be-repeated opportunity to make this area a truly sustainable community."
Landwatch Executive Director Gary Patton has indicated that a ballot initiative in Monterey County imposing a strict affordability quota of 40% or 50% may be the only remaining option for the future of affordable housing at Fort Ord. I anticipate that our League will strongly support such an initiative.
--Beverly G. Bean, President, LWVMP
