Aerial view of the lush forests and natural visual resources at Fort Ord. (Photograph: Steve Zmak).

Ventana Chapter has retained San Francisco attorney Thomas N. Lippe to represent the Chapter in its challenge to recent events at the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) Board that could weaken the environmental protections we included in the Fort Ord Reuse Plan by way of our 1998 Settlement Agreement, known as Chapter 8 of the Master Resolution.

The Chapter has been working to protect the environment at Fort Ord since the Fort Ord Reuse Authority was established in 1994. In 1997, the Club filed a lawsuit challenging FORA's adoption of the Fort Ord Reuse Plan and the Environmental Impact Report for the Reuse Plan. The Club and FORA settled that case by FORA agreeing to adopt a "Master Resolution" governing FORA's certification of the local general plans adopted by the City of Marina, the City of Seaside, and Monterey County. The Master Resolution includes a mandatory requirement (in Master Resolution section 8.02.010), that FORA disapprove the "consistency" of any local general plan that meets any of six specified criteria.

The Sierra Club is concerned because, in drafting its new General Plan, Monterey County altered or omitted many important, mandatory policies and programs of the Base Reuse Plan that are essential for protecting the environment. These alterations and omissions fundamentally change the County's legal obligations when it reviews future development entitlements, because the changes transform mandatory requirements of the Reuse Plan into discretionary decisions by the County.

Currently, the FORA Board, based upon legal advice from its outside counsel, is poised to adopt an interpretation of Master Resolution section 8.02.010 that will severely weaken environmental protection at Fort Ord. This interpretation is designed to allow the Board to approve the consistency of the Monterey County General Plan with the Fort Ord Reuse Plan when it is anything but "consistent." The attached letter from the Chapter's legal counsel, Thomas N. Lippe explains these complex issues in more detail. (PDF here)