Text Box: MERG has now entered its 20th year!  As noted last year, we have had many accomplishments and this year we have a continuing list of projects which we feel are important to Mariposans.  At the top of our list are: (1) General Plan Implementation (which will include rewrite of the subdivision and zoning ordinances, community planning, issue of historic parcel recognition, defining farm stay and agri-tourism, and assuring that global warming is addressed within one of the first amendments to the General Plan).  (2)   A water study for Mariposa County. (3) The possibility of an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan which would benefit the county.   Implementing the General Plan              In December of 2006, the Supervisors adopted the General Plan Update.  It is the broad outline for our future growth, but it requires ordinances to be enacted for implementation.  The county has hired a consultant to work on this process, but during the time this is occurring, development pressures are causing difficulties for our Planning Department.  We need clear definitions and guidelines by which the Planners can make decisions, and developers can understand how to design projects.  Meetings will be held to allow public participation in the various aspects of this effort.  It is important to move with dispatch on this as some would try to take advantage of the void to mold decisions to their special benefit and create bad precedent. It is equally important for each of you who feel strongly about Mariposa’s rural preservation to attend Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission meetings, where land use matters are to be heard. You will have the opportunity to share your viewpoint on such matters, should you choose to do so. Agri-tourism                  You will have read about the interest in this topic.  It is a means of allowing families in agriculture to augment their incomes by incorporating visitors into the on-site activities of the operation.  The goal is not to supplant the

Text Box: agricultural activity, but to enhance revenues so that the primary agricultural effort can be maintained.  This would preserve ranching and open space as a part of the rural character of the county.  Since the definitions and details of this are just coming to the public meeting phase, we have had an opportunity to comment at a series of workshops starting on January.  The MERG board strongly supports the efforts of the Planning Department to facilitate agri-tourism implementation, but to also avoid diffuse commercialization and parcelization of the ranches we hope to maintain.   Historic Parcels Appeal            Some of the ranches in Mariposa County are being subdivided by obtaining certificates of compliance.  This means that research is being done to see what parcels were melded to form the original ranch, and then to contend that the current owner is entitled to have each of these parcels declared separate, even though they were never treated as such, either in deed description nor on the tax rolls.  The Board of Supervisors has allowed this to happen, though many counties require a clear chain of title, both by description and tax payment.  The result is that large parcels can be subdivided without review by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) or the Subdivision Map Act.  Thus, we have two planning processes.  Most of us would have to go through the review by the above laws, while subdivision by the certificates would not.  This means that our planning process cannot be controlled by the updated General Plan.  There are alternatives.  The Board of Supervisors can deny certificate applications if there is no clear chain of title and tax records, or they could issue conditional certificates with the condition being that the parcels must be reviewed under the Map Act and CEQA.  This would unify our planning process and make treatment more equal for all.   Catheys Valley Planning Area Community Plan                  The MERG Committee for the Preservation of Catheys Valley and Hornitos succeeded in elevating the importance of completing a community plan for Catheys Valley before the County is faced with further growth/development pressure.  Thus, the Catheys Valley Community Planning Area planning effort was identified as a major priority of the General Plan update when it was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in December 2006.  The last meeting of the Planning Area Advisory Committee was in 2003.  A draft of the community plan was nearly complete at that time.               The County has contracted with the same consultant, Andy Hauge, who provided professional support for the General Plan update.  With his knowledge of the County’s rural growth alternative, it is anticipated

Text Box: Newsletter Text Box: Winter/Spring   2008

Text Box: Help Keep Mariposa Rural! Text Box: Photo/Joseph FitzGerald