With the clock ticking, supervisors make tough choices to update the county’s housing plan.

There is possibly little doubt that the meadow known as Tarpy Flats along Olmsted Road outside of Monterey will be developed. The neighbors don’t want it to be so, but a state law is on the side of a developer who plans to build homes. Just how many – 100 versus 725 – was the question as the Monterey County Board of Supervisors grappled with updating the county’s housing element on March 11, against an ever-tightening timeline.

The “builder’s remedy” law gives developers like Brad Slama more leeway in getting projects constructed, even if those projects are beyond current zoning regulations, due to the fact that the county does not have a state-certified housing element. The deadline to submit an element was December 2023. A draft was submitted in August. The California Department of Housing and Community Development sent it back in November, requiring more updates.

That means the window is open to developers proposing more builder’s remedy projects – currently there are eight submitted applications, including Slama’s, which calls for 100 homes on 120 acres, with 80 market-rate single family homes and 20 affordable units, per the county’s inclusionary housing ordinance requiring 20-percent affordable units.

On Feb. 4, Slama sent a letter of intent to the board, offering to build a higher-density project on 43 acres, with 375 townhomes on the eastern side of Olmsted and 350 units of three-story multi-family housing on the western side. Of the 350, 145 would be affordable. In return for the units the county needed, Slama asked for help securing the water.

With two forces pushing against the supervisors – a state mandate to plan for 3,326 units to meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation goal, and the threat of more builder’s remedy projects – Slama’s offer of 145 affordable units versus 20 swayed the supervisors to keep the Tarpy Flats parcel in the plan.

“If my choice is to be between a builder’s remedy application or the proposal that is currently outlined [by Slama], I would definitely be supportive of the proposal,” Supervisor Wendy Root Askew said.

There were other lots in question approved by the supervisors 5-0, including a site adjacent to York School desired by school officials for workforce housing. A former berry farm on Russell Road outside of Salinas was also approved.

The only disagreement was a 4-1 vote in favor of an agreement with the City of Marina to use a site owned by UC Santa Cruz inside the city toward the county’s RHNA obligation instead of a site at the UCSC MBEST Center. City officials worried housing near the airport would hamper future operations there. Supervisor Chris Lopez voted no, citing concerns.

County planners will make changes and make the new draft available for a seven-day public review period before submitting it to the state. California HCD will have 60 days to review the draft.