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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of June 28, 2004 to July 2, 2004
"Listen Live"
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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 June 28, 2004 to July 2, 2004
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, June 28, 2004 – Monterey and San Luis Obispo Housing
Workshops
Affordable housing issues are a hot topic in almost every part of
the Central Coast. Tomorrow, on June 29th, the City of Monterey
Housing Office will be holding what amounts to a “staff availability”
event. Starting at 4:00 o’clock, tomorrow afternoon, nonprofit
agencies and members of the public interested in affordable housing
are invited to provide comments on possible “impediments”
to fair housing within the City of Monterey. The meeting will be
held in the Monterey City Council Chambers, and will be conducted
by city staff and a consultant. The City is seeking to receive Community
Development Block Grant funds from the federal government, which
the City will use to help provide affordable housing opportunities.
Efforts to document problems and impediments to fair housing are
required as part of the application process.
In San Luis Obispo County, two housing workshops are also scheduled for this week. On June 29th, tomorrow, a workshop on “inclusionary housing” and “linkage programs” will be held from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. On Wednesday, June 30th, a workshop on affordable housing standards is scheduled, also from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Both workshops will be held at the San Luis Obispo City/County Library, with County staff running the meetings.
If you’d like to participate in one or more of these meetings, please click the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org for more information.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
City of Monterey Housing Programs
http://www.monterey.org/housing/For more information on the June 29th Meeting in Monterey, call 831-646-3995
For information on the San Luis Obispo Workshops, contact Dana Lilley at dlilley@co.slo.ca.us; Phone 805-781-5701
Tuesday,
June 29, 2004 – Santa Cruz County Affordable Housing Efforts
Last week, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors did something
rather extraordinary. On a 5-0 vote, the Board adopted an ordinance
that will impose very strong affordable housing requirements, in
connection with the conversion of non-residential land to residential
uses. Unless land is designated for residential uses, it’s
not possible to build housing on it. Land designated for “commercial
uses,” for example, is generally not available for residential
development. Because of the great demand for housing in Santa Cruz
County, many property owners would like to have their non-residential
lands designated for residential use. When that’s done, they
can then build houses, and sell those houses (absent any special
requirement) at $500,000 or $600,000 apiece. There’s lots of
money to be made, in other words, by converting non-residential
land to residential uses.
By its action last week, the Board of Supervisors established a “special requirement” on any such conversion. If such a conversion is approved, the residential development will have to include 40% affordable housing. Twenty percent of the new housing must be permanently affordable to lower income families, and twenty percent must be permanently affordable to moderate income families. The net effect is to require landowners and developers to provide a real public benefit, when the public benefits them.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Santa Cruz County Website
http://www.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/Residential Conversion Ordinance
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/
BDSvData/non_legacy/agendas/ 2004/20040622/PDF/082.pdfAudio Recording of Board Hearing and Board Discussion
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/
ASP/Display/SCCB_Meeting_Frame.asp?Type=Agenda&Legacy=
False&Date=06-22-2004&ItemNumber=82
Wednesday,
June 30, 2004 – The Blue Circle
If you’d like to find out more about watershed protection,
and if you’d like to learn about the California Endangered
Species Act (or CESA), and the federal Endangered Species Act (the
ESA), and if you’re interested in efforts being made to protect
plants and animals in Santa Cruz County, then there’s a meeting
this afternoon you may want to attend.
“Blue Circle” is the name given to a quarterly get-together of agencies involved in watershed protection. It is comprised of public agencies, units of government, and nonprofit organizations that have jurisdiction or concerns in Santa Cruz County watersheds. The “Blue Circle” has another, more bureaucratic name, as well; namely, the Coordinated Resource Management and Planning Advisory Team. The acronym is “CRMP.” You can see why participants like to call it the “Blue Circle.”
The “Blue Circle” is holding a meeting today from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Simpkins Family Swim Center, 979 17th Avenue in Live Oak. Dave Johnston, of the California Department of Fish and Game, will be making a presentation entitled, “Plants and Animals in Santa Cruz County – What You Need To Know.” The Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District, or RCD, is coordinating the meeting.
Even with all the acronyms, which may be a bit hard to take, isn’t it great that we have dedicated public agencies and staff working to protect the watersheds, plants, and animals of Santa Cruz County?
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District
http://www.sccrcd.org/For more information on the meeting call the Santa Cruz County RCD at 464-2950
Thursday,
July 1, 2004 – Salinas Affordable Housing Efforts
If it seems these Land Use Reports discuss the topic of affordable
housing an awful lot, there’s a reason for that. In terms of
land use policy, there’s no more challenging issue, and lots
of agencies and individuals are trying, in various ways, to grapple
with the problem. This week, I’ve already mentioned meetings
in San Luis Obispo County and in the City of Monterey, and an important
new ordinance actually adopted in Santa Cruz County.
Salinas is considering a possible amendment of its affordable housing requirements, hopefully to strengthen them. I say “hopefully” because the City has spent more than a year investigating the topic, with no action so far. Meanwhile, housing prices continue to escalate. Another meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, July 8th (a week from today) at 2:00 p.m., at the West Wing Conference Room in the Salinas City Hall.
The “housing market” operates on “market” principles. Those who can pay the most get what’s for sale. In the Central Coast, private market transactions have driven local housing prices far beyond a level that will allow an average or below average income person to buy.
Historically, when the private market fails to deliver socially important results, governmental agencies (acting in the public interest) step in and try to do something. If I mention meetings, it’s because governmental and public agencies react to public involvement. Consider getting involved. Check the KUSP website for information.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
For more information on how to get involved in affordable housing efforts, contact Lupe Garcia at LandWatch Monterey County. Lupe can be reached by phone at: 831-759-2824, Ext. 14.
Friday,
July 2, 2004 – A Meeting For Developers – The CSO Concept
When I advertise workshops and meetings, I mostly mention meetings
aimed at the public at large. My “unhidden agenda” is
to stimulate community participation in land use policy issues,
because it’s my experience that we can actually change what
happens in our communities if we get involved. Today, let me tell
you about a meeting that’s a little bit different, because
it’s specially designed for developers.
The event is titled “Integrating Community Stewardship Organizations in Land Development.” It will held in Carmel from August 8th to August 10th, and it is not a free event. The registration fee is $500. For more information, click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org.
What’s interesting, I think, is that the development community is now seriously trying to learn how to incorporate environmental protection into its development projects. The “Community Stewardship Organization,” or CSO, is intended to be quasi-governmental in its responsibilities, and to guarantee long term environmental compliance, after the developer is gone. Topics to be explored include: the feasibility of creating CSOs; how to integrate CSOs into the overall development strategy; how to prepare the legal documents establishing a CSO; how to fund the CSO, and how to gain public acceptance for the concept. The Rancho San Carlos development, in Monterey County, is an example of the technique.
For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
More Information:
For more information contact John Shepard, Sonoran Institute, at john@sonoran.org, or by phone at: 520-290-0828
Sonoran
Institute Website
http://www.sonoran.org/
CSO
Course Agenda
http://www.sonoran.org/programs/pdfs/CSO%20Training
%20Workshop%20Flyer.pdf
Archives of past transcripts are available here
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