Monterey is proposing changes to the town’s urban growth boundary to help with annexation.
Monterey Planning Commission Member Rafferty Cleary said the idea came after a property owner close to exit 300 off I-40 requested annexation. Cleary said the property is almost impossible to annex as a portion of the property is in the urban growth boundary, while the other portion is not.
“There were some areas that we thought had really good land potential, land use potential, that were not included in the urban growth boundary, and we wanted to get those in the urban growth boundary, and then there were some areas that were included in the urban growth boundary originally, that there is no land use potential. We are talking about a lot of issues with terrain, topography, and all of that, so we eliminated it,” Cleary said.
Cleary said some land parcels to the north and south of Highway 62 will be removed from the urban growth boundary, while land scattered around Monterey will be added. Cleary said the proposed boundary would shrink in size compared to the previous boundary,
“I think that one thing I found interesting is that it shrunk the original urban growth boundary and then it added, you know, some areas in that weren’t included that made, it just didn’t make sense why they weren’t in there to begin with, so those areas got added, but overall it shrunk the urban growth boundary,” Cleary said.
Cleary said the current boundary was last drawn over 30 years ago. Cleary said Monterey’s future annexation plan is focusing on properties around exit 300 on I-40.
“We see the 300 exit as being a prime location for development within the next five to ten years,” Cleary said. “We’ve got some utility lines that are actually underneath the interstate overpass. They are not being serviced right now simply because we have to have some infrastructure in place, a pump station in particular, to be able to service those lines.”
Monterey has already held a public hearing about the proposed changes to the urban growth boundary. Cleary said the town will have a second public hearing on June 2.
