The Monterey County Planning Commission gets another swing at a problematic housing plan.

Within a week after the Monterey County Department of Housing and Community Development released its draft 2023-2031 Housing Element – a plan for adding more state-mandated housing units to the unincorporated areas of the county – critics were crying foul. The element would promote urban sprawl, according to one criticism, by allowing up to 10,257 housing units, three times the state requirement.

By the time the draft element hit the Monterey County Planning Commission 11 days later, on May 15, commissioners agreed with critics that changes were necessary. Top of their list was to reduce the number of units to the state-mandated 3,326, plus a 30-percent buffer, or approximately 4,300 units.

Chair Martha Diehl argued that the county’s reliance on an inclusionary housing ordinance that allows developers to build market-rate homes as long as they include 20 percent affordable units is no longer usable. “If we get one thing from this report and the past history, we know we can’t do business as usual,” she said.

Completion of the draft element is overdue – the state’s deadline was in December and a grace period ended April 15 – and county planners have been racing to get the draft approved to avoid penalties. They wanted the Planning Commission to approve so it could go to the Board of Supervisors on June 4. Diehl asked for a special commission meeting on June 5 with the board refraining from voting approval until later.

“If you want something badly, that’s how you’re going to get it,” Diehl said, quoting a past commissioner. “This is too important to do it wrong.”

Diehl’s request was fulfilled. On May 28, the county announced that the board is postponing its discussion until Tuesday, June 11. The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for 9am Wednesday, June 5, inside the board chambers (at 168 W. Alisal St., Salinas). The meeting will also be available virtually.