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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of October 16, 2006 to October 20, 2006
Week of October 16, 2006 to October 20, 2006
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 16, 2006 to October 20, 2006
- Monday, October 16, 2006
The Dalidio Ranch Initiative / CLUE Meeting
- Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Eliminating Affordable Housing Restrictions
- Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Carmel Valley: The Next New City?
- Thursday, October 19, 2006
The Coastal Water Project
- Friday, October 20, 2006
Farmland Protection in Santa Cruz County
The following Land Use Reports have been presented on KUSP Radio by Gary A. Patton. The Wittwer & Parkin law firm is located in Santa Cruz, California, and practices environmental and governmental law. As part of its practice, the law firm files litigation and takes other action on behalf of its clients, which are typically private individuals, governmental agencies, environmental organizations, or community groups. Whenever the Land Use Report comments on an issue with which the Wittwer & Parkin law firm is involved on behalf of a client, Mr. Patton will make this relationship clear, as part of his commentary. Mr. Patton’s comments do not represent the views of Wittwer & Parkin, LLP, KUSP Radio, nor of any of its sponsors.
| Monday, October 16, 2006 The Dalidio Ranch Initiative / CLUE Meeting |
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It is possible for a community to insist that development decisions follow a community plan that meets overall economic, environmental, and social equity objectives. However, many development decisions are made not at a “plan” level, but at a “project” level. Individuals wishing to develop their property come in and ask for approval, and their request is given very serious attention (and is often granted), despite the fact that it is totally inconsistent with what the community has said it wants in its official planning documents. Legally, a project cannot be approved unless it is consistent with the adopted General Plan, but local officials often change the “plan,” to conform to the project, rather than making the project conform to the plan. The only way really to be sure that elected officials will do what the community wants is to establish planning policies by way of a voter-adopted measure of some kind. In adopting Measure J, in 1978, the voters of Santa Cruz County gave exactly that sort of policy direction, and subsequent project decisions have followed the planning guidelines. To get involved in these issues directly, and to find out about a “policy” measure on the ballot in San Luis Obispo County this November (the Dalidio Ranch Initiative), and about a meeting of CLUE, tonight, seeking to establish policies to guide future UCSC growth in the City of Santa Cruz, click on the Land Use Report link on the KUSP website. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Eliminating Affordable Housing Restrictions |
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The Monterey County Board of Supervisors will be deciding today whether or not to weaken its existing affordable housing program. Item S-6 will be heard at 1:30 p.m. The Board is being asked to revise the “Term of Affordability” provisions for new units to 30 years, and to allow the children and stepchildren of inclusionary homeowners to inherit the units regardless of income. Currently, the County requires a developer to include a percentage of affordable units in most developments built in unincorporated Monterey County. The units are “affordable” because they are price restricted. The price is not based on what the builder can get in the open market, but on the basis of a formula that insures that persons with low and moderate incomes can afford the unit. A home that might sell for $450,000 will be sold to a qualified affordable buyer for something more like $200,000. Naturally, this is a real benefit to the affordable buyer, but there is a benefit to the public, too. An affordable, “inclusionary” unit is currently required to be resold at a price that will continue to allow average and below average income persons to buy the home. This maintains a supply of more affordable housing over time. The proposed change is to let buyers “cash out” after thirty years, and to take the price increase as a personal gain to them, with the result of eliminating the long term supply of affordable housing. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Carmel Valley: The Next New City? |
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This evening, the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County (called LAFCO for short) will hold an important public hearing. The hearing will begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, 168 West Alisal Street, in Salinas. You can get more information below. On the agenda is a LAFCO consideration of whether or not to authorize an election, to let the voters of Carmel Valley decide whether they want to create a new Town of Carmel Valley, and to become independent of the County of Monterey. Cities and counties are quite different. If you live in Capitola, or Gonzales, or San Luis Obispo, you live in a city that has its own land use and other rules. If you live in Live Oak, or Prunedale, or Cambria (or in Carmel Valley) the Board of Supervisors makes all the governmental decisions that affect you. Establishing a new city is a very long and complicated process, and the concerned residents of Carmel Valley, who think that they’d be better off with their own, locally-elected officials making the decisions, have been working for more than three years to get to the point where the voters can decide. Everyone in Monterey County (but particularly the residents of Carmel Valley) have a stake in the decision that will probably be made tonight. I urge you to attend. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, October 19, 2006 The Coastal Water Project |
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Water supply and land use issues are related, so I like to pay attention to the “water world,” just as much as I like to follow the latest developments in the arena of land use policy. Coming up are some important meetings on water, affecting Monterey County specifically. The California American Water Company (or Cal-Am) is proposing a “Coastal Water Project,” to develop a new water supply through a desalination facility to be located in Moss Landing. Overall supervision of the project is being provided by the California Public Utilities Commission (or PUC), and the PUC has scheduled four meetings next week:
I encourage your participation in these meetings, which will help determine the “scope” of the Environmental Impact Report that will need to be prepared on the project. The Planning and Conservation League, for which I work, is very much interested in participating, because this proposed Coastal Water Project not only affects Monterey County, it will set precedents that can affect the entire coastal region. For more information, check the KUSP website. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, October 20, 2006 Farmland Protection in Santa Cruz County |
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Farmland protection is an environmental issue, but more than anything else, it’s an “economic” issue. The economic productivity of Central Coast agriculture is unparalleled. The gross agricultural production of the entire state of California is about $30 billion dollars each year. Monterey County, which has about one percent of the state’s commercial farmland, produces about $3 billion dollars of that $30 billion dollar total, or about ten percent. One percent of the land produces ten percent of the value: that’s what you call economically productive land! Land in Santa Cruz County’s Pajaro Valley is of comparable quality (though there’s a lot less of it). Maybe, in fact, the different attitude about farmland protection in Santa Cruz County comes from the fact that it’s pretty obvious, on the Santa Cruz County side of the Pajaro River, that farmland is precious. In Monterey County, it may seem that there is farmland to spare (but that’s the impression people used to have about Orange County, and Santa Clara County, too, and it turns out they were wrong). Last week, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County announced that they have been able to provide permanent protection for hundreds of acres of prime Pajaro Valley farmland, thanks to the combined actions of nonprofit organizations, and state and local funders. The Planning and Conservation League is proud to have played a part. The announcement is good news for the environment, and it’s really good news for the economy. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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