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NEWS |
December 8, 2005 Horse park gets go-ahead After years of discussions, the directors of Monterey County Horse Park and the county have reached an agreement establishing a concrete timeline for building a 390-acre horse park on Fort Ord. The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to negotiate exclusively with the directors, and the directors agreed to meet timelines to demonstrate to the county that they will see the project through. Foremost on the list is that by the end of January, the horse park group must raise $500,000 to carry out necessary environmental documentation, including completion of an environmental impact report, to build the park in an area known as Parker Flats north of Parker Flats Cutoff in Seaside. Parts of the site are still suspected of containing buried ammunition. Myron "Doc" Etienne said the group of 15 directors is confident that it can raise the money. Etienne, a lawyer with the Salinas firm Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Hoss, serves as board president for the horse park. An advisory council consists of a number of equestrian Olympic medal winners, including David O'Connor, 2000 Olympic gold medalist who won the individual eventing championship in Sydney, Australia. The idea for the horse park was born out of the proposition the site could serve as an equestrian site if San Francisco was successful in its bid for the 2012 Olympics. Though the bid fell through, local enthusiasm for a horse park continued to grow. Etienne said the horse park would be a venue for local, national and international competitions as well as equestrian training and education. If the group is unable to come up with $500,000 by the agreed upon deadline, it could bring the negotiations to a grinding halt, Chiulos said, but he added that he was confident that wouldn't be the case. |
