Community Education Archive

Scroll down for:

• Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR cameras)

• Pickleball at Via Paraiso Park

• Cellular and Wireless

• Quarry to Veterans Park Trail and Parcel B (2003-2009)
  

Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR cameras)

Example of stationary ALPRs.

The City council has narrowly approved a request by the Police Department to install cameras within and around the City of Monterey to record license plates of cars passing them. Due to the tradeoffs between catching bad guys and privacy issues, the City looked to get feedback from residents.

Watch: City Council meeting from Nov 21st, 2023 and scroll to 3 hrs. and 56 minutes

• Police Department puts in NCIP project to for Citywide ALPR License Plate Reader Cameras ($130k). See MN-01 near bottom of NCIP tab.

• The Monterey City Council voted 3-2 to approve the installation of Flock surveillance cameras throughout the city (April 4th, 2024).

• March 19, 2024 The follow-up Monterey City Council meeting to update and discuss ALPRs.

• Monterey Police held two Town Hall Meetings to discuss Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) on January 22 and February 8, 2024

• Suggested Police Department Policy re: ALPRs

• How ALPRs work (Electric Frontier Foundation)

• California ALPR FAQs

• How to Pump the Brakes on Your Police Department’s Use of Flock’s Mass Surveillance License Plate Readers (ACLU)

• Flock is Building a New AI-Driven Mass-Surveillance System (ACLU)

Pickleball at Via Paraiso Park

Aug 2022 Update: City finalized rules for Tennis and Pickleball at Via Paraiso Park

David Schmalz, The Monterey County Weekly

Pickleball has rapidly become popular across the US, as well as on the Monterey Peninsula. Since the game uses smaller courts, two pickleball games can generally be played on a single tennis court. As local games have increased over time (promoted by NCIP that funded painting Pickleball lines at Via Paraiso Park and the Monterey Pickleball Club with MVNA members), the games have become a staple at our beloved Via Paraiso Park. The increasing popularity of the sport has been met by pushback from nearby residents who object to the noise created by the hard balls and wooden paddles and when larger groups gather to play, as well as parking issues. This issue is also a national phenomenon, and will only be fully resolved when larger Pickleball facilities without nearby neighbors are built (e.g., like the successful Basketball court NCIP funded near the Coast Guard Pier). After petitions with many signatures on both sides of the issue were submitted to our Parks and Recreation Committee, the City offered to fund Mediation Sessions between residents on both sides of the issue to work out a compromise. With the help of a professional negotiator, a pilot agreement was reached that was on trial for several months and is now permanent.

• City makes Pilot Program guidelines permanent (Aug 2022)

• City creates Pilot Program; to run from May 2nd to Aug 2nd (Mar 2022)

• Mediated Pilot Program proposal between neighbors (Jan 2022)

• In A Pickle: Pickleball, which might be the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., is both loved and hated in Monterey County (David Schmalz, The Monterey County Weekly, Dec 2021)

• Monterey Pickleball Club

Cellular and Wireless:

The Monterey Vista Neighborhood Association (MVNA) strongly supported the majority of residents opposed to the 13 closely-spaced cellular antennas proposed by Extenet for Verizon within our neighborhood in September of 2017. The large number of residents that submitted comments to the City and spoke at multiple City meetings convinced the Planning Commission to deny these permits.

To avoid a repeat of this significant effort, the MVNA formed a Wireless Committee of dedicated residents to study the issue. The results of this work convinced the City Council to form an official Wireless Subcommittee to update Monterey's outdated Wireless Ordinance to better address future Telecom applications.

See latest updates on City website here

Links to documents and articles
re: Cellular Antennas within Monterey

Residential Cell Towers – The Science Behind the Concern?
By Ray Meyers - Monterey Vista Neighborhood Association Board Member

Wireless Subcommittee formed to study and revise Wireless Ordinance
     (Meetings are open to the public)

• First Meeting scheduled for Thursday, Aug 13th at 2-5pm (Council Chambers)

Redrafting Monterey's Wireless Ordinance

• Residents suggested edits to current Wireless Ordinance (May 2018)

• Van Eaton's (city-hired attorney) suggested edits to current Wireless Ordinance (July 2018)

• Table of Draft Comparisons

Effort to regulate cellular antennas in other cities:

• Petaluma: Draft of new Ordinance

• News article (July 2018)

• Scientists for Wired Technology (advocacy group)

Links regarding cellular antennas in Monterey:

• City of Monterey website on cellular antennas

• Overview of Verizon/Extanet application (Sept 2017)

• Monterey Herald (Oct 2017)

• MVNA Letter to City (Nov 2017)

• Public comments re cellular antennas within Monterey Vista (Nov 2017)
  (Note: The first comment was officially withdrawn by it's author)

• Monterey Herald (Nov 2017)

• KSBW (Mar 2018)

• Presentation by Best Best & Krieger in PDF (city-hired attorney, June 2018)

Research and further reading

• Captured Agency: How the FCC is dominated by the Industries It Presumably Regulated (Norm Alster)

• National Toxicology Program (US Dept of Health and Human Services)

• Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley

• C. Russell (2018) 5 G wireless telecommunications expansion: Public health and environmental implications, Environmental Research 165, 484–495.

• EM Watch

• Sue Halpern (2019) The Terrifying Potential of the 5G Network, The New Yorker

Quarry to Veterans Park Trail and Parcel B (2003-2009):

• History and court decision supporting full public access