Serving Monterey County and the Salinas
Valley
Monday, December 31, 2001
Development plans for River Road
By VICTORIA MANLEY
Owners of nearly 900 acres at the base of Mount Toro have begun making plans for the future of their property, plans that could include converting agricultural land for residential use. Owners of nearly 900 acres at the base of Mount Toro have begun making plans for the future of their property, plans that could include converting agricultural land for residential use.
The land, three miles east of the Salinas-Monterey Highway off River Road, has been passed down through generations of Salinas Valley farmers, including the Tarp, Neubert and Hicks families. It has primarily been used for grazing, with small pieces tilled for strawberries and other row crops.
As work gets under way to draft a 20-year general plan for the entire county, these proprietors plan to do the same for their own turf.
"The county talks about having a vision for the future, well, this will be our vision for our property," said Chris Bunn, a Salinas Valley farmer who's owned and lived on land in the area for more than 25 years.
"We've all been talking about wanting to do something in that area. We think that area of River Road is appropriate for houses," Bunn said. "We're looking at some sort of clustered developments with open space."
But ideas for the area, which they're calling Buena Vista Terrace, go beyond building houses.
The Tarp and Neubert families, who together own 280 acres, are considering four different plans for their property: a golf course, winery, hotel and tennis club, wedding chapel. There are also plans to build a fire station and a Monterey County Sheriff's Department substation.
Neighbor Douglas Faye was invited to join the group, but he declined and said that any large-scale development will ruin the area's wildlife and his views.
Faye plans to form a community group, Concerned Citizens of the River Road Area, that will oppose any development plan.
"I in no way want to take away their property rights," he said, "but if you put a golf course out there, you can't have the gophers and rabbits and snakes that the birds here feed on."
Like his neighbors, Faye's family has lived off River Road at the base of Mount Toro since the 1930s. From his home, Faye said, he sees bobcats and mountain lions, eagles and hawks, badgers and foxes nearly ever day.
"It's a natural corridor for wildlife on Mount Toro," he said, but added he worries that all wildlife will be run out of the area if homes or a resort are built.
"The ecosystem up there will cease to exist."
The plan is in the very early stages, said Candy Ingram, a consultant whom the families hired to work with county officials.
"You're looking at a 20-year plan and no one knows what could happen in 20 years," Ingram said. "They've gotten together as a group of property owners to talk about creating a master plan of all 800 acres. But they've done nothing."
Small ranches and large houses are scattered on the land, between Pine Canyon and Parker roads. During the county's last general plan update in 1982, officials changed the property's zoning from one-acre parcels to one that only allows agricultural uses on 40-acre minimum parcels.
Now, owners are asking that the zoning be changed back to allow for parcels as small as one acre and as large as 10 acres.
Bunn said that he and his neighbors "were caught off-guard and very upset" when their zoning was changed in the 1980s, and want it restored to allow for smaller parcels.
"We want to have a hand in this," Bunn said. "We still want to control our own destiny."
Victoria Manley can be reached at 646-4478.