The KUSP Land Use Report #44: Greenfield and LAFCO

"Listen Live"

The following Land Use Report is presented by Gary Patton, Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of our sponsors.

Greenfield is a small town in the Salinas Valley. This past week, the Greenfield City Council was deciding how large a planning area to designate, as the city begins an update of its General Plan. The Council decided to designate about 3,300 acres for potential future growth. That would increase the physical size of Greenfield by about four or five times. It would increase the city’s population from 13,000 persons to about 130,000 persons.

In other words, the Greenfield City Council voted to begin a process that could multiply its population by a factor of ten, and its physical size by a factor of five. Most of the other cities in the Salinas Valley have similar ambitions.

Next week, I’ll discuss some of the pros and cons of this kind of proposed growth for the Salinas Valley cities, and introduce listeners to LAFCO, the Local Agency Formation Commission. Whether or not cities actually expand according to their projections and plans is not a decision that the city can make by itself. That agency with the strange name (LAFCO) that not too many people know much about plays a very key role.

If you’d like to suggest a topic for a future land use report, or want to make a comment about this or any other program, you can do so at the KUSP website, www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

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