City Briefs
General
Plan Completion Near | Focus on Trees |
Sister City Nanao, Japan
Completion of General Plan Update Near
The updated General Plan – the document that shapes the community and
priority projects for some 20 years – is nearing final form.
Goals, policies and programs have been finalized. Final edits are in
progress and finishing touches, including graphics, illustrations and
photos, will be added before the draft plan is printed and presented to
the Planning Commission (scheduled for July).
The next step? We will analyze how the policies, programs
and projects presented in the plan will affect the overall community as it
exists today. As a result, an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will be
prepared and sent out for public comment. The General Plan will then go to
the Planning Commission and finally the City Council, for final review.
Opportunities for public input are ongoing, visit
www.monterey.org/boards
for meeting info and other updates or call 646.3885
(fell@ci.monterey.ca.us)
FOCUS ON TREES
Changes to Tree Laws Sustain
Healthy, Green Community
Enhancements to laws regarding trees are designed to help promote,
regulate and enforce the preservation of trees.
What you need to know
Facts: Community members need a permit to remove private trees
larger than six inches in trunk diameter, and the City also regulates the
trimming and removal of City trees.
Updates: Our updated tree law, first approved in 1991, now levies
higher fines (civil penalties) when trees are removed without a permit or
are excessively pruned. It also more specifically outlines the type and
size of required replacement trees when trees are removed with a permit.
To better protect both City and private trees from damage, the ordinance
also better defines “excessive pruning” and prohibits such pruning.
The City also designated 15 City trees/tree groupings as
“Local
Landmark Trees", trees of such unusual size, prominence or health that
are of significant value to the community (see photo of Window on the Bay
tree grouping). The nomination process for designating
a Landmark Tree includes the tree owner’s consent and City approval. A tag
identifying Landmark Trees will state “Local Landmark Tree – Do Not Trim
or Remove without City Approval.”
Ultimately, it is the community that provides the strongest support for
preserving our urban forest. For more info or to nominate a tree for
landmark status, call 646-3860.
Sister City Nanao, Japan
You’ll find Fisherman’s Wharf and a downtown-shopping zone. People from
all over the country travel there to take in the beauty and serenity of
this west coast town. There’s even a Monterey Jazz Festival event – but
English isn’t their native tongue.
Where’s the place? Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan;
Monterey’s Sister City. Nanao, which means seven mountain peaks, has been
our Sister City since 1996. More than 700 Nanao residents, both children
and adults, have visited Monterey and in exchange, nearly 300 people from
Monterey have made the trek to Nanao, located on the west coast of Honshu
Island, Japan’s largest island.
For more info, visit
www.monterey.org/sistercity
.
Return to top |
