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KUSP LandWatch
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ogo.gif" width="108" height="109" border="0"> "Listen Live" |
KUSP provided a brief Land Use Report on KUSP Radio from January 2003 to May 2016. Archives of past transcripts are available here.
Week of October 13, 2003 to October 17, 2003
The following Land Use Reports have been presented on KUSP Radio by Gary Patton, Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of its sponsors.
Monday,
October 13, 2003 – Marks Ranch
The Marks Ranch is a spectacular 797-acre property located immediately
adjacent to Toro Park, off Highway 68, in Monterey County. The Marks
family members were incredible conservationists, and helped preserve
a number of unique and special parts of the Central California coast.
Herman, Agnes and Andrew Marks honored their mother, Nisene, by
creating the 10,000-acre Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos.
The family made key donations at Point Lobos, and helped create
Toro Park, now one of the most heavily used recreational facilities
in all of Monterey County.
The family homestead, the Marks Ranch, has recently been steeped in controversy. Ironically, in view of the family’s commitment to conservation, and through a rather convoluted set of circumstances, a long term option on the property was given to a Monterey County developer, who wanted to turn the Ranch into a major residential subdivision.
Citizen protests were immediate, once the plan became known, and it’s a pleasure to report that the option has now been terminated, and that the owner of the property is seeking a “conservation buyer.” The Big Sur Land Trust and the Trust For Public Land are working to find a way to preserve and protect the Marks Ranch property. This week, I’ll talk a little bit about how land trusts work, and what a key role they play in achieving sound land use and planning policies.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Big Sur Land Trust Website
http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/Trust For Public Land, California Website
http://www.tpl.org/tier2_rl.cfm?folder_id
=266&submit.x=14&submit.y=10St. John’s College Website
http://www.sjca.edu/LandWatch Communications on Marks Ranch
http://www.mclw.org/pages/issuesactions/marksranch.htmlSierra Club Report on Marks Ranch
http://ventana.sierraclub.org/conservation/
marks_ranch/article0107.shtml
Tuesday,
October 14, 2003 – Big Sur Land Trust
The Big Sur Land Trust is a familiar name, not only around the Monterey
Bay Area, but even nationally. Of course, that has a lot to do with
the spectacular scenery that the Big Sur Land Trust is charged with
protecting. The Big Sur Coast is a genuine national treasure.
I often urge listeners to go to the KUSP website. If you click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org, and then retrieve the transcript for today’s report, you’ll find a link that can show you in vivid color just how beautiful the Big Sur Coast really is. And here’s probably the best part, the photographs on the website show lands that the Big Sur Land Trust has already succeeded in protecting!
While the focus of the work done by the Big Sur Land Trust will always remain on the Big Sur Coast, local residents can be happy that the land trust has acted, on some occasions, to help protect other critically important natural areas. The Big Sur Land Trust is currently working to protect and preserve the Marks Ranch, which is located along Highway 68, near Salinas, and is not located on the Big Sur Coast. The website also shows some striking photos of lands on the Monterey Bay Seashore that are a lot closer to Marina than to Big Sur.
Bill Leahy, the new Executive Director of the Big Sur Land Trust, joins an effort that began in 1977, and that has been incredibly effective in helping to preserve the incomparable natural resources of the Central Coast.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Big Sur Land Trust
http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/index1.html
Wednesday,
October 15, 2003 – Land Trust Rally in Sacramento
Groups like LandWatch Monterey County, for which I work, emphasize
the importance of the “non-environmental” aspects to land
use planning, as a kind of corrective to the easy assumption that
land use issues are simply a brand of “environmental”
issue. In fact, how we use the land profoundly affects our economy,
and issues of social equity, as well as the natural environment.
Groups like LandWatch also stress the “regulatory” and
“policy making” processes that play such an important
role in land use planning. Land use policy is really the product
of a rules setting process, which establishes specific requirements
for how land can be used.
To achieve good results where land use is concerned, however, it’s very helpful for a community to be able to go beyond the regulatory process, and we do need to focus very specifically on protecting our most important natural resources. This week, in Sacramento, land trust organizations from around the nation are meeting to discuss how to provide permanent protection to the natural environment through acquisition and easement techniques. These are the techniques used by groups such as the Big Sur Land Trust, or the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, or Cambria Greenspace, in San Luis Obispo County, to provide permanent protection to the most important parts of our natural environment.
If you’d like to get more information on this “Land Trust Rally,” as it’s called, check the KUSP website.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Land Trust Alliance Rally
http://www.lta.org/training/rally.htm
Thursday,
October 16, 2003 – Trust For Public Land
One of the groups working to protect the Marks Ranch in Monterey
County is the Trust For Public Land, or “TPL.” TPL has
also played a key role in Santa Cruz County, working to provide
permanent protection for the Santa Cruz County North Coast.
TPL is something like a “land trust,” which typically holds lands, over time, in trust for the public good. But TPL can also be seen as a sophisticated real estate business, operated in the interest of acquiring and then permanently protecting land for the public. TPL will often acquire important natural lands, and hold them for awhile, and will usually prepare a management plan for the lands during the time they’re the owner. Then, TPL will sell or transfer the land to others, often to public agencies, with restrictions that will guarantee the long term protection of natural resources.
This is definitely a “non-regulatory” approach. Such non-regulatory efforts can’t replace, but absolutely complement, the kind of regulatory processes that establish the basic land use rules which govern our use of the land. My recommendation is this: support and contribute to organizations like TPL and the Big Sur Land Trust that use acquisition, easement and non-regulatory techniques to protect natural resources, but don’t forget City Hall, the Board of Supervisors, and the local General Plan. We can’t be successful in achieving good land use, unless we’re active in both areas!
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Trust For Public Land Website
http://www.tpl.org/TPL California Website
http://www.tpl.org/tier2_rl.cfm?folder_id=266&
submit.x=13&submit.y=8Draft Coast Dairies Management Plan
http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id
=12007&folder_id=266
Friday,
October 17, 2003 – More on Land Trusts
A number of land trusts operate actively within the Central Coast
area. These include the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, the Peninsula
Open Space Trust, the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, the Big Sur Land
Trust, the Monterey County Agricultural and Historical Land Conservancy,
and Cambria Greenspace, in San Luis Obispo County. This is definitely
not a complete list.
If you’d like to get a complete list, or at least something like a complete list, you should visit the website of the Land Trust Alliance, the national organization that is sponsoring the “Land Trust Rally” taking place in Sacramento this week. The Land Trust Alliance website has a “Find A Land Trust” feature that allows you to find detailed information on a land trust in your geographic area.
The work done by land trusts is critically important. I hope, however, that you’ll not only support land trusts, but will also get involved in what might be called the “political” process (in the very best sense of the word). That “political process” leads to land use “policies” that will govern not only the way our communities, and individuals, use natural resources, but also how land use affects our local economy and social equity. The unfortunate “bottom line’ is this: we don’t have enough money to purchase every piece of land that plays a vital role in our future, so we need to set good rules for how that land is used, if we want to enhance and maintain the quality of our community life.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Land Trust Alliance “Find a Land Trust”
http://www.lta.org/findlandtrust/index.htmlLand Trust Alliance Rally
http://www.lta.org/training/rally.htm
Archives of past transcripts are available here
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