PLEASE VOTE NO ON MEASURE 'I'

ABSTRACT: ‘PLEASE VOTE NO ON MEASURE I,’ as a counter to ‘PLEASE VOTE YES ON MEASURE I,’ Paid for by the Committee for Aye on Measure I, appearing in the 2 October 2009 edition of The Carmel Pine Cone, is presented. SUPPORTERS, as Guardians, Defenders and Protectors of Public Parkland & Historic Resource, are described.

PLEASE VOTE NO ON MEASURE “I”
• The National Register of Historic Places Flanders Mansion Parkland Property will be made inaccessible to the public, Mission Trail Nature Preserve users and the current owners of the property, the residents of Carmel-by-the-Sea, if Measure I passes by a simple majority. The sale of the Property could create potential conflicts between a private property inholder owner and public park users.

• Despite a record of failure by previous City Councils since 1999 to muster the political will to determine and implement a public use compatible with the Hatton Fields neighborhood, a new City Council under new visionary leadership could consider proposals which were never placed on public hearing agendas for public input and consideration.

• In 2009, Architectural Resources Group estimated the restoration costs for a nonresidential use at $1,409,716; and "the difference between the as-rehabilitated value of $2,040,000 for sale as non-residential property and the as-is value of $890,000 is $1,157,000 for restoration," according to CBRE Consulting, Inc. These restoration costs could be budgeted for by a City Council over a multi-year period.

• “A number of impacted trails were identified in the RDEIR” and mitigation measures were identified which require the City provide adequate replacement trails to compensate for the lack of trail access to and through the Flanders Mansion property, according to the RFEIR. Whether “adequate replacement trails” will be expeditiously constructed is uncertain and not necessary if the Flanders Mansion Property remains as an “intrinsic” part of Mission Trail Nature Preserve.

• “The parks and open space amount to over 68 acres of land. In addition, the City has approximately 67 acres of other areas that can be considered an important open space resource, but are not available for the traditional park and recreation use.” (Source: General Plan/Coastal Land Use Plan Open Space and Conservation Element) Every acre of the total 68 acres available for park and recreation use is precious; the City’s General Plan/Coastal Land Use Plan states that the City must “Use, maintain and enhance publicly owned land for the benefit of Carmel residents.”

• “Illegal” actions in 2005 by a City Council in voting to sell the Flanders Mansion Property have cost Carmelites hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney and consultant fees which could have been more constructively expended on the rehabilitation and maintenance of the Flanders Mansion Property and Mission Trail Nature Preserve. A pending lawsuit, Flanders Foundation vs City of Carmel-by-the-Sea (M99437), may again find the City violated laws pertaining to the sale of parkland and may find the City did not meet its burden with regard to the Economic Feasibility Analysis which could potentially nullify a simple majority vote in favor of selling the Flanders Mansion Property.

SUPPORTERS:
Guardians, Defenders and Protectors of Public Parkland & Historic Resource;
Carmelites who view every acre of Mission Trail Nature Preserve Parkland as precious and the National Register of Historic Places Flanders Mansion as a significant and incomparable structure worthy of rehabilitation, maintenance and use as a low-intensity, compatible with the Hatton Fields neighborhood, public asset for us and future generations.