|
Ag center captures county's attention
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
 | | Pictured (l-r) EDA members Lloyd Bird, Dave Smith, Bryan Obaugh, supervisor Robin Sullenberger and EDA chair Betty Mitchell attend the meeting on the ag center. (Recorder photo by James Jacenich) |
|
MONTEREY - Monday, the Highland County Economic Development Authority held its second closed session in one week on the proposed agriculture center and animal processing facility. The meeting was attended by supervisor Robin Sullenberger, county administrator Roberta Lambert, zoning official Jim Whitelaw and planners Doug Gutshall and Tony Stinnett, in addition to most of the members of the EDA.
The Highland Center executive director and EDA chair Betty Mitchell wore two hats to chair the gathering. She represents the county on the EDA, and serves on the agriculture center organizing committee, an informal, loose knit group studying the possibility of building a regional center to serve four counties.
"We are in a fact finding mode," Mitchell said before the meeting. "We are moving ahead with a potential EDA project for the county. (This) meeting is continued from last week. We'll be hearing a new report."
The EDA then went into closed session to discuss the acquisition of property and contracts. No decisions were made following the meeting.
"It really was an update on the ag center project, including sites under consideration, for all present," Mitchell later said.
She also said the EDA continued its meeting Monday to allow for the possibility of holding another meeting before its meeting in February.
In the meantime, the planning commission, board of supervisors and Monterey Town Council are holding a joint public hearing Jan. 24 to discuss changing the zoning ordinance to permit slaughterhouses as a conditional use in general agriculture (A-2) and light industrial (M-1) districts and excluding them from business districts (B-2).
This week, Mitchell explained all the plans for the ag center were still preliminary. A few potential sites in all four counties have been explored, but there are no definitive plans in place for a location and no pending contracts to buy or lease property under way. The first step - getting a change in Highland's ordinance to permit such a facility as a conditional use in agricultural zones - must be addressed before further options can be discussed.
The committee has spent nearly four years doing advance work in the form of research, and feasibility studies, and is still a long way from any hard decisions, she said.
The Jan. 24 hearing will focus exclusively on the ordinance change request, and not on where the ag center could be located, as no site has been determined.
| 
)