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REFINEMENT GROUP HISTORY
In June of 2003, recognizing that the County had been unable to achieve community accord on an updated general plan, the Board of Supervisors convened a citizens’ committee to “refine” the draft general plan. The committee, named the “Refinement Group” by the Board, was directed to review areas of disagreement in the draft plan and to present the Board with specific recommendations for language modifications to resolve the disagreements.
The initial membership of the Refinement Group included representatives of a broad cross-section of community interests identified by the Board of Supervisors- agriculture, environmental groups, hospitality, organized labor, chambers of commerce, affordable housing providers and neighborhood associations. Unfortunately, several months into the process, the environmental groups withdrew from the Refinement Group. But the eighteen other organizations committed to completing the task that had been assigned by the Board of Supervisors. Those eighteen groups represent the County’s agricultural interests ($3 billion in annual revenues, 45,000 jobs), the hospitality sector ($1.8 billion in annual revenues, 24,000 jobs), unions representing over 8,500 workers, and chambers of commerce representing over a thousand members and 40,000 jobs.
To date the Refinement Group has devoted over 6,000 person hours to fulfilling the charge given them by the Board in June of 2003. They have submitted a “refined” draft of the general plan update to the Board, and are currently engaged in a program of educating the public and decision-makers about the contents of that revised plan. Copies of the Refinement Group’s plan are available on the web site (www.refinegpu.org) and on the County Planning Department’s web site (www.co.monterey.ca.us/pbi/gpu/). |
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