Tomorrow, Monterey County residents will have another chance to tell the Board of Supervisors what kind of General Plan the Board should adopt, to guide the future growth and development of Monterey County.

Agenda Item S-9, scheduled to begin sometime after 1:30 in the afternoon, is a public hearing regarding text changes to be incorporated into a draft 2007 General Plan. This is GPU5, the fifth draft of a new General Plan for Monterey County. As you’ll recall, the Board has been working on this project since 1999, or for about eight years, and has spent about $8 million dollars on the effort. Usually, a General Plan revision doesn’t take nearly so long, or cost nearly so much, so this is really one for the record books. As long time listeners know, my analysis is that it has been the Board’s unwillingness to take the advice of the 1960’s singing group, The Lovin’ Spoonful, which has led to this situation. Hopefully you remember the following great lines:

“Sometimes you really dig a girl, the moment you’ve kissed her
But then you get distracted by her older sister.
Her father comes in and takes you aside, and says
You better go home, son, and make up your mind.”

It’s possible that the Board is about to take that good advice. If you’ve got some advice to give them, don’t miss that hearing tomorrow! There is more information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey County Website
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/

Board of Supervisors
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/Default.htm

Agenda – November 6th Board meeting
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/suppagenda110607.htm

In Los Angeles County, they call members of the Board of Supervisors the “Five Kings.” Having been a County Supervisor once, I’d have to say that the analogy to royalty might be a bit overdrawn. There is, however, no doubt that the electoral “power” of any member of any Board of Supervisors is quite significant.

If you’re a member of Congress, you are one of about 535 people, so your individual voting power is 1/535th of the total voting power of the body. If you’re a member of the California State Legislature, your individual voting power is 1/120th of the total voting power of the body. But if you’re on a Board of Supervisors, your voting power is 1/5th, or 20% of the voting power of the body, and you only need two other members of the Board to vote with you to be able to direct the considerable powers of County government in the way you think is most appropriate.

Frankly, lots of members of Boards of Supervisors don’t think of it this way, and they tend to do what the staff says, instead of trying to put together three votes to give staff direction. Still, it’s worth paying attention to your local Board of Supervisors. Today, in Monterey County, the Board will be deciding the direction of the next County General Plan. In San Luis Obispo County, they’ll be taking numerous land use related actions. There is more below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Agenda – November 6th Monterey County Board meeting
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/suppagenda110607.htm

Agenda – November 6th San Luis Obispo County Board meeting
http://slocounty.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?
view_id=2&event_id=25

Key Items in San Luis Obispo County:

• Historic Resources
  http://slocounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?
  view_id=2&event_id=25&meta_id=70331
  
  
• Ag Preserves
  http://slocounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?
  view_id=2&event_id=25&meta_id=70358
  
  
• Safety Element Amendment
  http://slocounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?
  view_id=2&event_id=25&meta_id=70360

The UCSC campus is located largely within the City of Santa Cruz, but with significant areas located outside the City, in the unincorporated portions of Santa Cruz County. Both City and County governments have a stake in making sure that the future growth of the UCSC campus is consistent with the long term land use and financial planning efforts that guide overall community development.

As most KUSP listeners know, the relationship between UCSC and local government has tended to be “rocky” of late, largely because the University has chosen to act pretty much independently of the normal land use process with which other major landowners must comply. Legally, they can do that. The Regents of the University can adopt their “Long Range Development Plan” (or LRDP) without any local approval at all, and while they haven’t ignored local concerns completely, and there has been some consultation, both the City of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County have felt that the University has not been very attentive to local concerns about water, traffic, housing, and finance.

Today, on campus, there is a “Rally Against The LRDP.” It will be a “demonstration,” plus an opportunity to learn more. If you’d like to march, or just learn, be at the Baytree Plaza, on the UCSC Campus, at noon today. There is more information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

For more information on the “LRDP Resistance” Action
http://lrdpresistance.org/

You can locate the Baytree Plaza by using the following online map - http://maps.ucsc.edu/. The Plaza, located adjacent to the Bay Tree Bookstore, is near the intersection of Hagar Drive and McLaughlin Drive, on the campus.

Specific directions are here
http://maps.ucsc.edu/cdbaytreebuilding.html

Eminent domain is the power of government to take an individual’s property without their agreement, but only with due process and with payment to the property owner. The idea is that a genuine community need, in the final analysis, must be able to trump individual property rights. If, for instance, the government decides that a road needs to be widened, then it has the power to take the property necessary to accomplish the widening project, even if a property owner along the road doesn’t want to sell.

But what about “taking” someone’s property to turn it over to another private owner to “redevelop” it as a private project? For instance, can a city take your single family home, in order to transfer your property to a shopping center developer who will build a shopping center that the local government thinks will have public benefits? The answer is “yes,” according to the so-called “Kelo decision” handed down by the United States Supreme Court several years ago.

Two different initiatives, proposing to reform eminent domain laws in light of the Kelo decision, are now circulating. One of them, sponsored by mobilehome park landlords, would actually make it virtually impossible for local government to regulate land use at all. It’s an anti-environmental measure that would destroy local land use planning. Luckily, there is a reasonable reform out there, sponsored by the League of Cities, among other groups.

For more, see below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Website, Californians For Eminent Domain Reform
http://eminentdomainreform.com/

Last Monday, I met with attorneys in the Department of Justice who are working on the issue of how CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, relates to the threat of global warming. Attorney General Jerry Brown has been providing very significant leadership on global warming issues, and has elevated the role of CEQA. Some members of the business community think that he has overstepped the limits of what he really ought to be doing.

In fact, quite the contrary is the case. The Attorney General is doing exactly what California law says he should be doing, which is to ensure that the environmental laws of the state are appropriately and faithfully executed. I’m personally delighted that the Attorney General has decided that the California Environmental Quality Act merits his personal attention. To my mind, he’s right.

CEQA is California’s most powerful environmental law, and it’s also what I call its strongest “good government” law, because what it really requires is that governmental agencies think about the consequences of their decisions, in a systematic way, before they take an action that could have a negative impact on the environment. Global warming is definitely a negative impact, and we need to figure out, as we continue to review and approve development projects, what we can do to limit their global warming effects. That is what the Attorney General is saying, and that’s what the law says, too!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Information on CEQA
http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/

The PCL “Everyday Heroes” Report (Thirty-Five Years of CEQA)
http://www.pcl.org/projects/everydayheroes.html