In just a few days, the Monterey NCIP committee will vote on the 2023-24 proposed projects. Our project to build eight new pickleball courts, from scratch, at Ryan Ranch Park is one of these projects. Additional information about the project and NCIP can be found in my previous blog post here.
Please show your support by attending the NCIP voting meeting on Thursday June 1
The meeting begins at 6PM and will be held at the Monterey City Council Chamber (580 Pacific St). Parking is available in the Dutra St. lot behind the building. Additional information can be found in the agenda here.
I am hoping for a strong presence of pickleball players at the meeting so we can show the committee how important this project is to us and how many people will benefit from the project. We are asking anyone that is available to attend regardless if you are a Monterey resident or not. You don't need to speak -- just show up to show your support. In fact, it's best if you don't speak. We don't want to overwhelm the committee members with too many comments. To many speakers may actually harm our project.
We will have a few designated speakers. During public comment, they will ask everyone to stand or raise their hand to show support for the project. That's all you need to do. You can leave after public comment is over or you can stay for the vote. I'm guessing public comment will be over by 7PM.
The committee will take public comment on all the projects first. Then they will go through all the projects (there are lots of them) and vote on each one. The vote on our project should occur somewhere in the middle. Only the top vote getters will pass. The number of passing projects depends on the cost of each project, the total project budget, and how many votes each project gets. At the conclusion of the meeting, we may know if our project passes, but, it's possible that we will not.
There are 103 proposed projects this year. The majority of them are previously approved projects that were defunded in 2020 due to the pandemic and financial crisis. So, getting a new project like ours through will be difficult. That's why it is so important that we have a strong presence.
Our project is asking the City to allocate $80,000 for the pickleball court design planning process this year. If we get enough votes and the project is approved, next year we will submit a project to build the courts. The preliminary construction cost is $400,000.
I hope you will consider attending.
See you on the courts -- and at Thursday's meeting!