A postcard from Monterey
An adventuring planner’s view on housing considerations in Monterey..
An adventuring planner’s view on housing considerations in Monterey ….
Stop 3, after spending a few days in Monterey, enjoying its undeniably beautiful, it is clear to see that the city an county, faces serious tensions between the need for housing and environmental constraints. Having wandered the coastline and talked to locals and watched some sea otters, seals and having gone whale watching, here are some of my impressions:
Housing Pressures
- The city is obliged to plan for many new homes
- To meet these targets, there are proposals to build in areas like former military land and/or areas with plenty of open space.
Environmental & Infrastructure Constraints
- Water Supply: One of the biggest constraints. Whilst driving through California, the issue of water availability and rights becomes all too clear. I am sure both now and, in the future, will become an inevitably increasing challenge for new housing developments in previously undeveloped as well as previously developed areas.
- Impact on habitats and open land: With such an array of natural coastline environmental pressures will inevitably as whereas people seek to view and enjoy the natural wonders, but also such pressures will conflict with the or other open spaces risks disturbing sensitive biological areas — wildlife corridors, wetlands etc.
- Traffic and Emissions: issues around development footprint spreading out will raise familiar concerns around air pollution and carbon emissions, causing pressure for greater urban focussed development sound familiar….?
- Natural Hazards & Climate Risk: future proofing new and existing development from issues such as wildfire risk, sea-level rise and coastal erosion and other natural hazards, which all need to be considered – I’ll return to wildfires having seen some of the damage to waterside properties in Santa Monica…
So what are the tensions and trade-offs?
- In somewhere with such inherently beautiful natural coastline setting and ecological treasures – whales watching was really special so comparatively close to the coastline of Monterey, there will inevitably be a trade-off between protecting the coastal and natural landscape whilst meeting housing needs.
- With regards to matters of affordability, providing “affordable housing” will be difficult when land is expensive, infrastructure (roads, utilities, water) are constrained, and environmental laws or protections complicated and can slow down development.
It strikes me as just a vistor, that Monterey is trying to walk a tightrope. On the one hand, there is heavy pressure to provide housing — for workers, for those who cannot afford high rents, for people displaced by tourism and real-estate speculation. On the other, the environment (and climate change) imposes real limits: water, land, hazard risk, preserving the natural beauty that is the reason many come here in the first place.
Unless planning is done very carefully — favouring infill rather than sprawl, ensuring sustainable water infrastructure, protecting sensitive ecosystems — the risk is that new housing will degrade what makes Monterey special, without actually solving the housing crisis.
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