Butterfly Village

THE FACTS REGARDING BUTTERFLY VILLAGE

Each of the facts below is supported by a specific hyperlinked reference to documentation prepared by Monterey County or its independent consultants. None of these sources depend on information supplied by the owner/developer of Butterfly Village.

Butterfly Village is Dramatically Downsized From Rancho San Juan

+ Butterfly Village is about one quarter the size of the former Rancho San Juan Specific Plan area. The Board of Supervisors rescission of the original Specific Plan in November 2005 downsized Rancho San Juan from 2,580 acres to 671 acres, eliminated 2,853 residences and deleted approximately 3.5 million square feet of commercial/industrial land designation.¹

The Effect of Measure D

+ The Board rescission of the original Specific Plan also removed the Area of Development Concentration from all the lands outside Butterfly Village.² Those lands are currently designated Farmlands and Rural Grazing.³ A “Yes” vote on Measure D on the June 2007 ballot will retain these rural land designations. A “No” vote on Measure D would again designate these lands as an Area of Development Concentration⁴ providing for their future development.

Butterfly Village is Water Positive

+ Butterfly Village is designed and required to be water positive, putting more water back in the ground than it will use. Specifically, the EIR calculates that a net 25 acre feet/year water surplus will occur at buildout of Butterfly Village. ⁵ The recharge of the aquifer will be achieved by the same natural percolation process that exists pre-development. To assure these projections are achieved, annual reporting of water consumption is required and if consumption exceeds the established cap, then additional water conservation sustainability measures are required prior to issuance of additional building permits.⁶

Improves Historic Erosion and Sedimentation Problem

+ Historically, a severe erosion and sedimentation problem exists downstream from the property.⁷ By means of a series of retention/detention ponds within Butterfly Village areas of porous pavement, roadside vegetated swales and biofiltration basins at discharge points in parking lots and roadways, the offsite flow will be reduced to less than a 10 year pre-development rate while at the same time providing infiltration and cleansing of urban runoff before recharging the aquifer. ⁸

Butterfly Village Provides 339 Units or 30% Affordable Housing

+ Butterfly Village provides 339 very-low, low, moderate and workforce housing units on-site, which represents 30% of the total units.⁹ The on-site inclusionary housing units will be restricted for affordability in perpetuity.¹⁰ As required by a condition of approval, people living and working in Monterey County are given priority for the purchase of these units.¹¹ Of 1,147 lots, just 34 lots are 1 acre “estate lots” that help to subsidize the massive affordable housing component of this project. ¹² In October 2004, the County’s independent fiscal consultant estimated that Butterfly Village residential units would have an average price of $530,000 each. ¹³

Butterfly Village Increases Revenue for Salinas and Monterey County

+ Fiscal benefits to the City of Salinas will exceed $190,000/year. ¹⁴

+ With a CSD, Butterfly Village will add up to $1,138,000/year to the Monterey County General Fund. Ten years after buildout, contributions to the Monterey County General Fund would increase to $1,572,000/year due to an annual increase in property assessment value.¹⁵

Butterfly Village Benefits Safety, Schools, and Public Facilities

+ Through taxes and developer fees, Butterfly Village will concurrently fund a Sheriff’s sub-station, fire station, equipment and personnel, schools, a library, traffic improvements and 379 acres of open space/parks/public facilities, addressing existing deficiencies at no cost to County taxpayers.¹⁶

+ ALL construction costs ($100+ million) and on going maintenance of Butterfly Village facilities will be paid by the developer and the ongoing maintenance will be paid by the residents of the community with absolutely no financial burden to the rest of the residents of Monterey County.¹⁷ A Community Services District will operate and maintain services through a special assessment. These assessments will include street surfacing and maintenance, drainage facilities, open space (parks and recreation), fire protection, garbage collection, and street lighting with sewer and water services being paid by user fees to the PUC regulated purveyors. ¹⁸

Butterfly Village Contributes 56.9% of Its Land to Open Space and Public Facilities

+ 56.9% of Butterfly Village is conservation, parks, common open space, and public facilities lands. ¹⁹

Butterfly Village Preserves Prime Farmlands

+ Concentrating development in Butterfly Village preserves agricultural land. The Rancho San Juan area has been repeatedly designated for concentrated development in 1986, 1991 and 2005, because it continues to provide the best opportunity for accommodating growth next to existing development and infrastructure in a manner that provides for the long-term preservation of the County’s agricultural and natural resource lands.²⁰ Only 0.7 acres of Butterfly Village is prime farmland.²¹ In order to further preserve agricultural lands in the County, a condition of approval requires Butterfly Village to fund development of a county-wide agricultural compensation program.²²

Butterfly Village Improves Roads

+ $16,017,310 in traffic fees required to be paid by Butterfly Village will substantially reduce unacceptable conditions at several intersections, roadways and freeway segments which presently operate at an unacceptable level of service.²³ In 2010 and 2020, the number of these existing problem areas remains approximately the same WITH or WITHOUT the traffic generated by Butterfly Village.²⁴

+ Specifically, Butterfly Village will pay $16,017,310 in traffic mitigation fees towards improvements to 16 intersections, 15 roadway segments, 6 freeway segments, including Russell Rd. and North Main St. intersection, Harrison Rd. leading to the project’s northwest access road, and three intersections along San Juan Grade Road.²⁵ The $16+ million in traffic mitigation fees are required even though Butterfly Village represents a 76% reduction in traffic over the former Rancho San Juan Specific Plan. ²⁶

+ The $16,017,310 in traffic mitigation fees required to be paid by Butterfly Village is far greater than required by any other jurisdiction in this County. For example, market rate housing units in Butterfly Village will pay $13,674 each in traffic fees. When these fees were imposed on Butterfly Village in December 2004, the traffic fees required for similar units in the City of Salinas were only $1,530 per unit, or about 1/9th as much.²⁷ Now that Salinas has increased those fees to $2,570 per unit,²⁸ Butterfly Village will pay more than five times as much per house as nearby development in the City of Salinas will pay.

+ In addition to the $16,017,310 in mitigation fees, Butterfly Village is required to construct or fund numerous on-site and off-site road improvements prior to the issuance of building permits.²⁹

+ In recognition of the high level of services, revenues and facilities provided by Butterfly Village, Caltrans and the City of Salinas have dismissed their complaints. ₃₀

Butterfly Village is a Model of Sustainability and New Urbanism

+ Butterfly Village will be a model for sustainability by promoting a whole-building approach to sustainability, recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Rated by LEED standards, numerous Green Seal features are required to be incorporated into the design of Butterfly Village. Examples - solar light tubes, use of renewable resources and materials with a high level of recycled content, Energy Star rated appliances, irrigation moisture sensors, solar energy features and photovoltaic energy generation. ³¹

+ Butterfly Village will provide an attractive environment for all ages and incomes of people living, working, shopping and seeking recreational pursuits in Monterey County.³² It provides for multi-modal opportunities with a preference towards walking, biking and transit, thus reducing automobile fuel consumption through design and a compact land use approach.³³ Single family homes, town homes, condominiums, and apartments will be surrounded by a variety of recreation facilities and open space areas easily accessible by walking and bike trails.³⁴ The residences in Butterfly Village will vary based on the lot sizes ranging from 1-3 dwellings per acre to 16-20 dwelling per acre³⁵ with architectural styles reminiscent of the older neighborhoods and ranches that dot the countryside, such as California Craftsman, Spanish Colonial and Monterey Colonial. ³⁶

Questions regarding any statement in this material may be directed to Mark Blum at blum@horanlegal.com. [5/7/07]

 

Links (PDF)

• 5-09-07 Salinas Californian Opinion
• 05-25-07 Carmel Pine Cone 'Defeat of Measure D could be costly for County taxpayers'
• 05-25-07 Carmel Pine Cone Letter 'Butterfly Village defended'
• Open letter from Ron Chesshire, President, Monterey/Salinas Building Trades Council
• CAL-Rep Taxpayer's Association Analysis
• Monterey County Taxpayers Urgent Election Message
• Urgent Message from the California Republican Taxpayers – Yes on D

Factoid

"Monterey County is not merely a place in abstract that can be frozen in time. Rather, it is home to 426,000 people who need gainful employment, access to goods and services and a wide variety of housing now and in years to come."
--Salinas Californian Editorial, May 9, 2007