Please view our May 2024 newsletter HERE.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE We are in the middle of the 2024 Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program (NCIP) project selection process.  For those of you unfamiliar with the NCIP, allow me to give you a quick lesson.  Section 6.6 of the City Charter was added in 1985 to establish the NCIP.  The City Charter can be thought of as the City’s constitution and amending it requires a vote of the public.  Section 6.6 mandates the allocation of 16% of the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) to the Neighborhood Improvement Program (NIP) fund.  There is a NIP Committee which consists of sixteen City Council appointed members representing the sixteen neighborhoods.  The NIP Committee holds a series of meetings to consider all of the project nominations that residents send in throughout the year to improve our neighborhoods and the community as a whole.  At the end of the NIP Committee’s process, they will recommend projects to the City Council for funding.  Ordinarily, the NIP receives around $6,000,000 however this year, because of some accounting adjustments from previous years, there is a little over $10,000,000 to divide among the neighborhoods. One of the important matters that your neighborhood association tends to each year is gathering input from our New Monterey residents to help prioritize the nominations received for our neighborhood as well as projects that benefit the entire community.  Your input is key to the continued success of this institution both during our general membership meetings and by attending the NIP Committee meetings and voicing your preferences. Over the last few years, City staff has made inferences that the NCIP has become overly burdensome, and it is funding projects that are high on maintenance obligations.  Your NMNA Board strongly disagrees with that characterization.  I looked back through the projects that have been funded by the NIP over the last eighteen years and I compiled a list of 285 projects that have addressed public health, safety and essential maintenance needs of the City.  These include storm drains, street widening, sidewalks, the Emergency Operations Center and the Sports Center expansion to name just a few.  Please keep your ears and eyes open for any news of the City Council working to modify the NIP funding formula.  We have many important needs for our neighborhood that are still awaiting funding. Some of the projects up for nomination in our neighborhood include:  Updating our neighborhood plan which is a cornerstone for how we want our neighborhood to look and function; plans and estimates to renovate Hilltop Community Center; constructing a crosswalk and median on David Avenue at Terry Street; drainage improvements along the 600 block of Lyndon and repairing the historic workers’ shacks located next to the Recreation Trail at the Irving Avenue extension. Keep informed and keep helping to improve our neighborhood and our beautiful city. Thank you, Tom Reeves NMNA President

NMNA General Meeting: What is Firewise? As a City of Monterey Fire Inspector, Jennifer Valdez’s is well qualified to educate us about the national program known as FIREWISE. That will be the topic of her presentation at the June 12 NMNA General membership meeting. Firewise is a program of the National Fire Prevention Program which encourages local solutions for safety by involving homeowners in taking responsibility for protecting their homes from wildfire risk. Living in our beautiful, wooded region, we all need to be informed and prepared to deal with fire risk. Come to Hilltop Center at 7 PM on June 12 to hear about Firewise.

Hilltop Park Center Today and Tomorrow At the April 17 NMNA Board meeting, Gene Rizzo, CERT Captain for New Monterey, and Rachel Deis, Hilltop Recreation Coordinator, were present and provided information and background on Hilltop Center’s usefulness in their programs. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. In emergencies, CERT members provide support for first responders, working closely with fire and police departments, easing the emergency burden and taking part in search and rescue activities. Years ago, NIP funded 20-foot containers to house CERT supplies and equipment in Monterey neighborhoods. The City provides modest funding, mostly for training programs, and some for equipment upgrades and supplies. New Monterey has two CERT containers, one at Hilltop and one at Archer Park plus CERT has its own radio repeater. Hilltop is a prominent high location, able to reach Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach as well as New Monterey. Hilltop is also unique in that a helicopter can land there (and has) in emergencies. According to Rizzo, in an emergency, CERT would really benefit from bathroom access at Hilltop Center. CERT does not provide housing, but Hilltop can, and has, served as emergency housing for people displaced in emergencies. CERT provides two to three free training programs a year which equip new members with valuable emergency response skills. New Monterey has a large population and limited emergency access and exit routes and needs more local members.   Rachel Deis told us of the many programs at Hilltop Center. Because it has both staffing and inside and outside space, Hilltop offers a wide range of simultaneous cost-efficient activities unavailable elsewhere. Hilltop Park Center’s 2.8 acres has a large grass field, play equipment, enclosed “tot” playground, basketball and tennis courts and a group BBQ area. There are a children’s summer camp program, preschool and playgroup programs not available elsewhere. Among its 17 rooms, Hilltop even has a kitchen. Hilltop has emergency water storage, but not dedicated backup electricity. The center offers ballet instruction in piano and guitar, a ceramic studio, and classes for children and adults like Pilates, yoga, folk dance, and more. It features two large multi-purpose and meeting spaces available for non-profit or private-party rental. It hosts Red Cross Blood drives and, before Covid, Hilltop hosted The Choraliers and The Community Band. The NMNA Board concluded that Hilltop is a valuable neighborhood and community asset. NMNA has submitted an NIP project proposal (NM-12) for assessment and analysis of Hilltop’s building condition and a program to address its needs to assure its use by the community for all of its varied activities and in case of emergencies. Please show your support for Hilltop by attending in person or via Zoom the NCIP Voting Night meeting to be held on June 6 at 6 PM in the Council Chambers. Please note that NM-12 is not at all the same as NM-08, the city’s Hilltop proposal.

Area Plans and Why They Matter Most people know that cities have regulations that govern land uses.  With competent, careful planning, we shouldn’t have to worry about an industrial plant opening up next door to our houses, and that’s because of zoning. We also have plans that are supposed to coordinate the road networks, sewage systems, storm drains, parks and all of the supporting municipal infrastructure so that as development occurs, those systems are in place to absorb the extra demands. One type plan is an area plan. New Monterey’s area plan was last approved in 1991 and since then much has changed and people’s opinions may have changed. An area plan is similar to the City General plan in that it provides more specific details about how elements of the General Plan should be applied to a specific area or neighborhood. Area plans need to fit hand-in-glove with the General plan. Our existing New Monterey area plan addresses goals, policies, and programs in these subjects: housing; urban design; parks, recreation and open space; vegetation; traffic and parking; public services; soils and geology; historic preservation and commercial uses. So you might ask, why should I care about a thirty-three year old area plan? And the answer is that in those thirty-three years, we’ve seen the: opening of a large hotel on Cannery Row; expansion of the Aquarium; closure of the Presidio; planning of 381 new residences in the Cannery Row area; warming of the atmosphere and resulting decline of our forests (and associated fire risks) to list just a few of the salient reasons for updating our area plan. Your New Monterey Neighborhood Association has applied to the Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program for funding to update our area plan (NM-04). This nomination is just one of over 60 nominations for funding, so the competition is keen.  And even though area plans are essential to the orderly, logical, and consensus-driven development of our neighborhood, it admittedly doesn’t have the pizzazz of some other nominations. Please help us promote this project by attending the NCIP Committee meetings either in person or via Zoom or by writing to our representative, Chinyere Ogbonna at newmontereyncip@gmail.com. You can find more out about the NCIP Committee’s meeting schedule HERE.

Plan Now For Property Tax Changes By Sharon Dwight Property owners in Monterey will see a sharp increase when their property tax bill arrives in November. Monterey One Water has opted to bill for Sewer Treatment on property tax bills, instead of the usual bi-monthly bills. Starting July 1, bills from Monterey One Water stop. If you own a single family residence, that means $44/mo x 12 months = $528 will be added to whatever your annual property tax bill is. The rate is the same for each apartment or condo. Monterey City Council has opted to have City Sewer System charges billed annually, too. (City Sewer System and Storm water have been billed on the Monterey One Water bill.) At the current rate, single family residence owners will be charged $10.77/mo x 12 months = $129.24 on that same property tax bill. For condos and each apartment the charge is $7.88/mo x 12 months = $94.56. – On April 4, Monterey City Council voted to move forward with a 5-year program to increase City Sewer System charges to cover system repairs and upgrades. – Property owners will be receiving a letter around April19 outlining the proposed residential sewer rate increases. – On June 4 City Council will conduct a public hearing(as required by State law) to consider protests from rate payers. If 50% + 1 property owners protest in writing, the rate increase cannot be adopted. If protests number less than 50%, the increases go through – and will show up on your November property tax bill. If protests number less that 50%, Monterey City Sewer System charges on property tax bills will be $169.32 per house, $123.96 per condo or apartment. Added to these will be the Monterey One Water charge of $528. If you save up money through the year to pay your property tax in December and April, know that these charges are being added. Monterey County allows customers to set up automatic monthly payments from a bank account (no fee) or credit card (1.99% charge). See the Easy Smart Pay website for details.

Airport District Business The Monterey Peninsula Airport District is a California Public Agency created in 1941. The district is governed by five publicly elected Board Members. The primary role of the members of the Board of Directors is to establish and oversee implementation of policy for the District. New Monterey is in Airport Board District 3 which will be on the ballot in the November election. If you are interested in Airport operations and its impact on our neighborhood, you should consider running for this seat. Nominations/Declaration of Candidacy filing period is July 15 – August 9. Candidate forums will only be available within this time frame. Candidate statement of qualifications will be due at the time of filing. For more information, click HERE.

Meet Your NMNA Board Member Arleen Hardenstein – NMNA Vice President Arleen grew up in Monterey, and has lived in Pacific Grove, Big Sur, Prunedale and everywhere in between. With these moves came several real estate transactions where she experienced first-hand all aspects of the business of renting, buying and selling real estate. For over twenty years, Arleen has been negotiating the best possible deals for her clients whether they are buying or selling single-family homes, multi-residential units, commercial, investment or residential properties, or helping seniors relocate to one of the retirement communities on the Monterey Peninsula. Arleen is a former President of the Monterey County Association of Realtors and is very active with the Pacific Grove Rotary, is on the board of several local non-profits and a frequent volunteer for numerous Peninsula events. When she’s not selling real estate, Arleen can be found walking for exercise, dancing for fun, spending time in her garden, or traveling with her husband and two sons. Arleen feels lucky to be living in the beautiful neighborhood of New Monterey!