Posted on 01/10/2005 5:36:30 PM PST by Lorianne
Time has always passed this town by.
Created a century ago by legendary "Sugar King" Claus Spreckels to provide homes for his factory workers, Spreckels evokes an era when neighbors gathered on the front porches of sturdy Craftsman houses, stately Victorians and storybook cottages.
People here still do that. But now, ironically, the distant past is reaching out to pull the town into the present. Monterey County officials have decreed that a 1907 map permitting 73 new homes is as valid today as when it was drawn. The development would immediately increase the size of Spreckels by 40 percent.
Despite legislative efforts three years ago to close "antiquated map" loopholes, California landowners are still hunting for old subdivision maps that permit them to build on pristine property. The case in Spreckels may determine what role antiquated maps will play in California's future.
Rep. Sam Farr, D-Salinas, has dubbed the practice of digging up old maps "environmental terrorism." But developers, timber companies and some owners of smaller properties say they're simply exercising their legal rights.
Residents shell-shocked
Spreckels residents are shell-shocked. They believed their time warp was shielded from growth because Spreckels is one of a few remaining California "company towns," surrounded by some of the nation's best farmland.
"It's quiet and unique -- the historical treasure of Monterey County," said Teresa Cerna, 70. "Why can't we leave just one town just the way it is?"
Spreckels, about four miles south of Salinas, is the only town in Monterey County designated as a "historic district." John Steinbeck and his dad worked there. In fact, the Salinas-born Steinbeck used Spreckels as a setting for portions of his popular novel "Tortilla Flat." The 1955 movie "East of Eden" was filmed in Spreckels.
The flap over the map stems from the closing of the Spreckels Sugar Co. plant in 1982. The company then sold farmland next to town to the prominent Tanimura family. For decades the family -- but few in town -- knew about the 1907 map. It didn't become an issue until the family decided to plant housing on the site rather than lettuce.
Cerna and other Spreckels residents have banded together to fight the proposed 73-unit development, which they believe would turn their town of 185 homes into a place that more closely resembles the sprawl in Salinas than classic Americana.
Monterey County supervisors, however, say they have no choice. In June, on the advice of their attorneys, the supervisors voted 4-1 -- Supervisor Dave Potter dissented -- to accept the original map of Spreckels, including the 73 lots. In September, Spreckels residents sued the county.
Plaintiffs hire lawyer
The Association of Spreckels Residents and LandWatch Monterey County, an influential environmental group, are co-plaintiffs in the case. They've hired Santa Cruz attorney Jonathan Wittwer, a specialist in squashing the desire to turn yellowed maps into California gold.
Wittwer argues that the county planning department's contention that a 97-year-old map creates legal lots -- a position backed by the county counsel's office -- is dead wrong. He concedes that the map was valid under an 1893 state law that required owners to record their subdivision maps with counties. But Wittwer will argue in court that local governments were not allowed to reject maps until 1929. Since the county at the time had no right to say "no," the 1907 map "didn't create legal parcels," Wittwer contends.
"These old maps were often drawn on napkins," Wittwer said. "They were even recorded on napkins."
A 2001 bill carried by former state Sen. Byron Sher, D-San Jose, closed some loopholes involving old maps. Shortly before, a furor erupted when the Hearst Corporation proposed subdividing its 83,000-acre ranch in San Luis Obispo County into 271 lots shown on antiquated maps. Two years later, the state Supreme Court ruled that a Sonoma County landowner didn't have the right to use an 1865 subdivision map to divide 158 acres of forest land into 12 parcels.
But the new law and the court decision haven't stopped the old-map controversy.
Dennis LeClere, deputy Monterey County counsel, and Michael Cling, an attorney for the Tanimura family, argue that the court also made clear that post-1893 maps were legal, if accepted by a county board of supervisors. Minutes of the Monterey County board meeting on Jan. 8, 1907, show it accepting the "official map of the Town of Spreckels."
Supervisor's expectation
Lou Calcagno, chairman of the county board of supervisors, said he expects the Spreckels case will find its way to the state Supreme Court for clarification on whether an "antiquated map" means before 1893 or before 1929.
Elizabeth Panetta, a community activist for LandWatch, said accepting "ancient maps" could have devastating consequences for modern California. Her group has found similar subdivision maps for Big Sur and even "Point Lobos City," subdividing what is now Point Lobos State Reserve, which landscape artist Francis McComas once described as "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world."
"Who knows how many other maps like that are out there?" Panetta asked.
Environmental and community groups also fear that big Salinas Valley agricultural firms like Tanimura & Antle will soon go into the housing business.
Gary Tanimura, vice president of production for Tanimura & Antle, dismisses those concerns, noting that many of his managers and salespeople want to live closer to work. That's smart growth, said Tanimura, whose family has hired an award-winning architect to mimic the style of older Spreckels homes.
But opponents say they prefer not to mix history with suburban tract homes designed to look like they were built during the time of Claus Spreckels.
Sugar magnate Spreckels
Spreckels, the son of German peasants, played such a huge role in the development of Hawaii's sugar industry that he was knighted by a Hawaiian king. But his biggest dream was to build the world's largest sugar-beet factory. It opened in Spreckels in 1899, when the brick plant began using 13 millions gallons of water and processing 3,000 tons of beets a day.
"That smell was our paycheck," joked Jim Riley, 60, whose family has lived in town for four generations.
Riley, the town historian, said Claus Spreckels initially gave his workers a free pint of beer twice a day. He also built them a whole town that included a general store, a theater, a park, a big school, a tiny post office and a fire station.
One of the things residents love most about the town is the post office. Spreckels residents don't have mail delivery, so they run into neighbors every day at the mailboxes in the post office. It's next to the general store with its '50s-era soda fountains and luncheonette stools.
Despite assurances from local postal officials, Riley and other Spreckels residents worry that the proposed development will cost the town its post office and, with it, a way of life.
"If the town's expansion means we lose the post office, that means we lose the town," Riley said. "We'll just be another Salinas ZIP code."
Leave the town alone.
Wasn't Kay Spreckles Clark Gable's widow and the mother of his son?
Liberals are so pathetic.
Kitty, that son was 5 years old when Kay married Gable in 1955. Anthony "Bunker" Spreckles grew up to become a notorious 70s-era surfer who lived a jet setting, hedonistic lifestyle that culminated in his death by drug overdose in 1976.
Liberals are so pathetic.
Tell that to the Freepers who post thier "porn is terrorism", and "evolution is terrorism" threads.
I do expect it from people who presume to lead me.
When you stop building houses, you have homeless people...
Sam Farr is a communist...
Pornography is an idolatry of perversion...
ping-a-rooni
ping-a-rooni part II...
Looks like Gary Patton is up to his old tricks...
That old "general store" isn't much of a store nowadays.
I used to stop there a few times a year, just to look, grab a soda, or something.
(going northbound on 101, if headed to Monterey, one can by-pass Salinas by going through Spreckels...)
The last time--I was amazed how barren the store was.
It's been going downhill for some time now.
Coming back from Monterey,
towards Salinas (on CA 68), a little ways past the Spreckels turn off, on the other side of the road, one of the first little places
one comes to is an old gas station, pumping gas, making & selling
deli sandwiches (and various other, much of it "mex" style foods), beer, etc.
Crammed packed, that joint. Packed with customers, too.
I feel sort of sad about that Spreckels store.
Don't know if I'd sink money into it myself,
but for someone out there---?
How DARE they do legal things with their own property! They're acting like they OWN it, or something...
</sarcasm>
The silly development restriction rules in California are what keep the house prices sky high. These guys had to scheme this much in order to build a measily 73 (or whatever homes) - and they'll be fought over it (incurring costs) for years!
I emphatically agree, leave this charming town alone!
Full disclosure, I used to live in Spreckels, just a tad over 50 yrs ago.
BTTT!!!!!!
"Why can't we leave just one town just the way it is?"
Buldoze the whole town and build out the whole thing new!
Personally I can't see how anyone can live in that old crap!
The County Recorder knows.
No 'loop holes' are necessary; all those accepted maps are valid; the constitution says so, and that creates a contract.
Private Property Right's ~ Bump!
What part of private property right's don't you understand?
BTT!!!!!
Got a single example? Bet not.
The worlds oldest, largest, last, ugliest, smallest anything was on Rt. 66.
It was the best education I ever had about the United States ... if ever there was evidence of the American dream in action, it was the enterprises found along that wonderful display of memory.
"Leave the town alone."
I agree.
Thanks for the info. I could have sworn the boy was his son. Too bad about his lifestyle.
I take it that you're pro-porn?
Had to go back a ways? I stand corrected.
I'll take it you're against the precise meaning of words, and are willing to destroy the potency of language as long as it suits your agenda?
And, in many respects, I agree. However there is much to be said for preserving history, and little ol' Spreckels is a sort of connection to an earlier California, that should be preserved.
The Salinas Valley is a big place, and there is no critical need for developers to screw up Spreckels.
That said, there is something to be said for historic preservation.
Have you ever, for example, seen the historic battlefields in Virgina, Pennsylvania and elsewhere on the east coast?
We wouldn't want condos there, now would we?
Well, Spreckels may not be Antietam but it is"...quiet and unique -- the historical treasure of Monterey County".
Question for you, my friend. What about the property rights of the current residents of Spreckels to preserve the history of their teensy community?
All 'property rights' end at your property line.
And in case you haven't checked lately, most of the 'historical' sites in the east have numerous tacky motels surrounding them.
If that's what the residents want, the only fair thing would be for them to buy out the property owners at fair market value (based on what they would get if they developed the property).
See post #34.
PS I've been to Spreckels, I'm a native Californian and spent 60 years fo my life there before moving to Oregon in '90. :)
Oregon has passed a law that stops government from interfering with your property rights and if they do they have to pay you for the interference. :)
Measure 37.
http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/nov22004/guide/meas/m37_text.html
I'm familar with the new 'revolution' in Ore-gone, my brother lives in Salem (don't inhalem ;o)
Roger that, editor-surveyor!
It's funny that Measure 37 passed here, with all the liberals that voted Nov 2.
All of the conservative measures passed except tort reform ~ maybe GWB will get national tort reform through. :)
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