Measure Q Urban Growth Boundary

City of Marina Measure Q Urban Growth Boundary Expiration Date Extension 

To protect the City of Marina from development in current open space areas north of the City limits and along its coast, and to encourage efficient development in central Marina and within Marina's portion of former Fort Ord, shall an ordinance be adopted extending the expiration date of the Marina Urban Growth Boundary Initiative to December 31, 2040?

On June 16, 2020, the City Council of the City of Marina adopted Resolution 2020-75, submitting to the voters at the November 3, 2020 General Municipal Election a Measure approving a General Plan Amendment and Local Coastal Program Amendment extending the expiration date of the operative provisions of the 2000 Marina Urban Growth Boundary Initiative to December 31, 2040.

BACKGROUND AND INFORMATION:

On November 7, 2000, by a 52.4 to 47.6% margin, the voters in the City of Marina’s General Municipal Election approved a voter-sponsored initiative measure to: (a) adopt an Urban Growth Boundary line, located generally along the northerly edge of the City of Marina; and (b) to discourage for a period of approximately twenty years any new development other than park and open space uses to the north of or above the Urban Growth Boundary line.

The 2000 Urban Growth Boundary and the restrictions it imposed on new development were established by amending both the City of Marina’s General Plan and the Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan.

With regard to lands presently located within the city limits, and south of and below the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary line, the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary adopted General Plan policies providing that immediately adjacent to the Urban Growth Boundary line an open space buffer is required between new development and existing residential areas and new development is thereby  encouraged to locate within existing developed areas, rather than on currently vacant or undeveloped land.

Since 2000, the provisions of the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary have been intended to encourage efficient growth patterns and protected the City by concentrating development largely within or directly adjacent to existing developed areas consistent with the availability of infrastructure and services.  The goals of the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary have encouraged infill development in an orderly and logical manner  while minimizing adverse environmental impacts of new development on existing residential areas within the existing urban areas of the City while also encouraging ongoing agricultural, open space and natural resource uses on lands outside the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary.

The 2000 Urban Growth Boundary’s provisions are intended to afford the ability for the City to meet reasonable housing needs for all economic segments in the population, especially very low, low, and moderate income households by directing development of housing into area where services and infrastructure are more efficiently available.

The 2000 Urban Growth Boundary seeks to promote stability in long-term planning for the City by acting as a cornerstone policy within the General Plan to designate appropriate geographic limits for urban development for a twenty-year period and allowing sufficient flexibility within those geographic limits to respond to the City’s changing needs over time.

The 2000 Urban Growth Boundary amended the Land Use Plan of the City’s Local Coastal Program by adding Policies 43 and 44 prohibiting in the North Reservation Road Planning Area outside the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary but within the City limits until December 31, 2020:  (1) new development other than public parks and open space uses (including agriculture) outside the Urban Growth Boundary line; and (2) making the North of Reservation Road Planning Area subject to an Urban Growth Boundary Overlay to limit new development to those uses permitted by the underlying land use designations that are also allowed outside the Urban Growth Boundary pursuant to the 1982 General Plan Land Use Goal 1.1.  

The 2000 Urban Growth Boundary will expire automatically on December 31, 2020, unless extended or amended by the voters of the City.  By its own provisions, the 2000 Urban Growth Boundary may be amended only by the voters.