This polygon shapefile contains the boundaries of rural centers within Monterey County, California. Rural center boundaries establish areas of higher intensity development throughout the rural areas of the county based on the availability of infrastructure, public services, existing uses, parcelization, impact on natural resources, etc. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Monterey County in California. This dataset is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.