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Under pressure from City Manager Don Reynolds and the San Juan Bautista City Council to complete its work, the city’s Urban Growth Boundary Committee voted Oct. 28 to submit the finished draft of its final project, a memorandum of understanding (MOU), to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors that would give the city a measure of input into developments on county property near its boundaries.
The MOU had been under consideration since the committee’s May 24 meeting. It originally proposed a three-tier division of land outside the city limits—designated as an “area of concern”—that would have allowed the city’s Planning Commission and City Council a considerable voice in any developments the county might consider for approval.
Renamed as a “planning area,” the MOU states that it is essential for San Juan to maintain “significant influence” over that area, saying it is “vital to the protection of the historic character and setting of the city, which underpins the city’s cultural and economic well-being and community values.”
Originally proposed by committee members Dan De Vries and Chris Martorana, the final draft offered further revisions before the MOU was placed on the agenda for discussion and approval. The most significant change was to move most of the decision-making from the Planning Commission to the City Council.
It would also require project applicants to make an “informal presentation to the city” before the county considers an application complete, with “the intention of avoiding unreasonable delays.”
“This thing has taken a lot of twists and turns,” De Vries said,” and it should not be objectionable to anyone. It’s basically, ‘Come tell us about your project, we’ll tell you what we think of it, and, county, we hope you will listen to us.’”
Committee members DeVries, David Medeiros and Jackie Morris-Lopez voted to approve the MOU and send it to the City Council for final approval. Committee members E.J. Sabathia and Chris Martorana were absent.
The committee was formed to draft the state-required sphere of influence and create an urban growth boundary for the city. The MOU was the last task set out for the committee, which had until the end of November to complete its work.
“We finished strong, turned out an excellent document, and crossed the finish line with our arms held high,” De Vries told BenitoLink following the meeting. “I’m confident the county will agree to the MOU with little to no changes, in which case the process and protections afforded the city will benefit us for generations.”
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