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KEY SUPPORTERS of the Community General Plan initiative differ in their opinions of what should be done next, but some who made large contributions to help get the initiative on the ballot said they will hold off giving more until the plan is freed from legal purgatory.

Last week judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for an emergency injunction to place the initiative on the June ballot, leaving supporters of it hanging.

While LandWatch Executive Director Chris Fitz last week said his group would be very involved with Monterey County Board of Supervisors’ most recent plan, dubbed GPU4, other initiative supporters, including Salinas City Councilwoman Jyl Lutes, said the plan drawn up by supervisors should be scrapped.

“GPU4 does nothing,” said Lutes, a signatory of the LandWatch initiative. “It continues the problems we already have. I don’t even think they should bother wasting their time on it.”

Lutes and other initiative supporters have said GPU4 is strikingly similar to to the 1982 county general plan, which they claim favors development interests over those of citizens and responsible growth.

Instead, Lutes suggested her group seek a compromise with a citizens group that opposed the LandWatch initiative, instead offering yet another general plan which they called “Plan for the People.”

“I think you could take their plan and the initiative and work out a compromise,” she said. “There are things that work better for North County in the initiative, and there are things that work better for South County in the Plan for the People plan.”

Lutes’ proposal was called “too late” by Tom Carvey, a member of Plan for the People.

“Many groups — including hospitality groups, Latino and labor groups, the agricultural industry — have already come together,” Carvey said. “Having someone come to this table saying we should start from scratch, I don’t think that should happen. The initiative is exactly the opposite of a compromise. It’s a one-size-fits-all deal and that’s the problem.”

A U.S. District Court judge in March ruled the plan was invalid because backers did not circulate the petition in English and Spanish.

County supervisor Dave Potter, who supports the initiative, said the “option right now is to work with GPU4 and hope for some understanding.”

But Potter expressed concern his support of the initiative might have irreparably hurt his relationship with fellow supervisors.

“They could be irritated, given the fact that I kind of deviated from the board’s direction,” he said. “But I haven’t given up all hope. Is the initiative perfect? No, but in the long run it is closer to saving Monterey County than the other plan.”

Jane Parker, who narrowly lost the District 4 supervisor’s seat to Jerry Smith in 2004, donated $5,000 toward the initiative.

“It gets a little discouraging over time to realize that you are not being listened to at all, but I think it’s important to be engaged and pay attention to what GPU4 is doing and do as much as I can to call people’s attention to where it needs improvement,” said Parker, who said she’ll run for county supervisor again in 2007.

Some contributors to the Community General Plan Committee, created to finance the initiative process, said they aren’t sure if they’ll donate more money now that the initiative seems to be going nowhere.

“The initiative is in limbo right now,” Parker said. “So until I know more about what’s happening with it, there’s nothing to contribute to at the moment.”

Howard Classen, who also donated $5,000 to the Community General Plan Committee, said he would take a wait-and-see approach before forking over more money.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take,” Classen said. “Conceptually, I’m still supporting the idea people still have the right to do referendums and initiatives.”

The Ventana Chapter of the Sierra Club was one of the largest contributors to the Community General Plan Committee, donating $25,000. Sierra Club chapter chair Gillian Taylor declined to say whether the organization would donate more money but, in a written statement, said the group would still be involved in the general plan effort.

“Unfortunately, we have seen no evidence that the board of supervisors is ready to start listening to the public. We’ll continue to consider and exercise all appropriate options going forward, as we have before,” Taylor noted. “The people of Monterey County deserve a responsible general plan. What is clear from the history of this general plan update process is that the public is not going to get a responsible general plan until the citizens have an opportunity to legislate directly.”

Smith, who called GPU4 a “compromise,” said all groups had a chance to provide input to GPU4 but many simply chose not to.

“Don’t continue to say that supervisors are at fault in regards to shouldering their responsibility for participation,” Smith said. “We can have public meetings, but we can’t make people participate. There has never been an exclusion in regards to the public participation.”