Helping Shape the City’s Future

Good planning is essential for effective communities. Every city has the responsibility to decide how to use its land and guide the form and shape the city will take in the future.

The Planning Commission is entrusted to help set land-use goals and evaluate individual project proposals to ensure that they are consistent with the City’s adopted plans. Almost every decision of the Commission must strike a balance between private benefit and the overall public good.

What do they deal with?

Composed of seven members, the Commission creates a vision for future development in the City. To define that vision, the members:

   1. Conduct research on growth and development.
   2. Establish community development objectives.
   3. Outline planning strategies to achieve the community’s objectives.

During the decision-making process, the Commission relies on the City’s General Plan and Zoning Ordinance. The General Plan, which governs the City’s physical shape and character, is our major policy document. Monterey’s General Plan was adopted in 2005 and is reviewed on an annual basis. The General Plan can be found on the Web at: General Plan . In addition, the City has adopted specific area plans for various commercial and residential neighborhoods.

In order to carry out its responsibilities, the Commission also considers subdivision ordinances, the State Planning Law and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

As part of the work program, the Commission:
   1. Develops and maintains a General Plan
   2. Develops more specific area plans to augment the General Plan
   3. Develops zoning and subdivision ordinances to implement the plans
   4. Performs annual reviews and makes recommendations to the City Council on the Capital Improvement Program and Neighborhood Improvement Program
   5. Reviews development applications for their compliance with City plans, ordinances and programs