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KUSP LandWatch News
Week of March 16, 2009 to March 20, 2009

 

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 March 16, 2009 to March 20, 2009

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.

Gary Patton's Land Use Links

 

Monday, March 16, 2009
Water On The Peninsula

If you’re looking for an opportunity to help shape the future of the Monterey Peninsula, I want to recommend a meeting being held tonight by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District. The meeting begins at 7:00 o’clock, in the District Conference Room, located at 5 Harris Court, Building G, in Monterey.

To the extent we find out what’s happening to us, we take the first step towards being able to make things happen the way we want. The realities we create by implementing public policy are not determined by fate. The human world in which we most immediately reside is created by our own actions. That means that whatever realities we confront in that human-created world are realities that we can change. To make changes, though, we first have to know what’s happening now. Then, if we want to spend the energy to do it, we can usually modify our existing, current reality, since our current “reality” is the product of past human decisions, and thus susceptible to change.

The meeting this evening will focus on two different issues. Looking to the past, the Board will consider the Ryan Ranch business park, since it appears that there are not sufficient water supplies to allow this development to “build out” as originally permitted. Second, looking ahead, the Board is going to discuss the proposed Coastal Water Project. The decisions made about that project may affect not only the Peninsula but the entirety of Monterey County, for years to come.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

March 16, 2008 Agenda, Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
http://www.mpwmd.dst.ca.us/asd/board/
boardpacket/2009/20090316/0316agenda.htm

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Item S-1: Participation Makes A Difference

I like to celebrate the fact that our individual and organized participation in public policy decisions can change the world. That’s true even in Monterey County, where local government practices have the hard resistance (if not the brilliance) of diamonds, and where the political process has been anything but open.

I served as the Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County from 1998 to 2005. Having come from the Santa Cruz County side of the Bay, I expected members of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to place items on the agenda in response to concerns raised in the community. In fact, that’s how representative government is supposed to work. The public raises concerns, and the government responds to those concerns, and our elected officials are supposed to make that happen. In Monterey County, however, since 1998, not one member of the Board of Supervisors, even one time, has placed even one policy item on the Board agenda.

Today, Item S-1 on the Board’s agenda does show that community participation can make a difference, and I’d propose a round of applause for activist Marjorie Kay. Ms. Kay has individually appealed a proposed subdivision application, and has advanced the matter to the Board, where the recommendation is to turn down a proposal to subdivide property in North Monterey County, since water supplies there are already overdrafted. You might want to watch what the Board does on this one!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey County Board of Supervisors Agenda, March 17, 2009
http://monterey.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=5

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Modifying The Natural Environment

The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission will meet on March 26th. One of the items on the agenda is a hearing to consider a request to allow grading on slopes in excess of thirty percent. The proposed project, which is a single-family residence, is located in Cayucos. According to County staff, the proposed project raises no significant environmental concerns. If you have an interest in this matter, this is a “heads up” advisory on the upcoming hearing.

To me, what is most interesting is not so much this specific application, but to see whether the Planning Commission will stand up for the general rule that grading on slopes over thirty percent should not be permitted. Grading is one of the most environmentally problematic of all human activities related to development, despite what County staff may say. From a philosophical perspective, when we grade a site in connection with development we are rejecting the world that nature presents to us, and instead of accommodating our construction to the existing contours and constraints of the land, we reshape and modify the natural environment. That can result in loss of habitat vital to endangered species, and almost always has the effect of increasing erosion and therefore diminishing water quality.

Restrictions on grading on steep slopes will be a big issue in the upcoming hearings on the Monterey County General Plan. We all have a stake in the outcome.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

San Luis Obispo County Website
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/site4.aspx

Meeting Schedule and Agenda Access, San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/planning/meetingcalendar.htm

Agenda, March 25, 2009 Planning Commission Meeting
http://slocounty.granicus.com/AgendaViewer
.php?view_id=3&event_id=56

Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Housing Element

The Santa Cruz County General Plan is the “Constitution” for land use in Santa Cruz County, and all land use decisions must be “consistent” with the General Plan. State law requires that seven specific elements be included in the General Plan: Land Use, Circulation, Housing, Conservation, Open Space, Public Safety, and Noise.

Of these mandatory elements, only the Housing Element must be updated according to a specific, legally-defined timeframe. In Santa Cruz County, both the timeframe for producing the Housing Element, and its contents, have been controversial. Most recently, Santa Cruz County achieved a conditional certification of its current Housing Element, based on a County commitment to rezone 30 acres of property for higher density housing. Last Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors established a process for updating the Housing Element for the next planning period, from 2007 to 2014.

A critical component of the Housing Element is the evaluation of adequate residential sites available to meet the identified needs for housing for all income levels. If you are a resident of an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County, decisions relating to the Housing Element may well impact you. I’d like to recommend that you obtain a copy of Item #23 from last Tuesday’s agenda, and review it. The update process will be going forward during most of this calendar year.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Agenda, March 17, 2009

http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/
ASP/Display/SCCB_AgendaDisplayWeb.asp?
MeetingDate=3/17/2009

Agenda Item #23, relating to the Housing Element, can be downloaded from the above website.

Friday, March 20, 2009
What I Plan To Tell The Sierra Club

Tomorrow, I will address a statewide meeting of conservation activists who are working through the Sierra Club on issues like land use, energy, air pollution, toxics, and transportation. At a time when we face a global environmental crisis, it’s great to know that there are hundreds of individuals in local communities around the state, working on these critical problems.

If you’d like to hook up personally with the Sierra Club, I’ve put some links in today’s transcript. What I plan to tell the activists I’ll address tomorrow is exactly the same thing I tell Land Use Report listeners each weekday, here on KUSP Radio:

  1. Our human civilization and our individual lives are ultimately dependent on the integrity of the natural environment, which supports all life; therefore, respecting the natural environment is vital for our future.

  2. We most immediately live in a human-created world, and we can, literally, do “anything” we choose to do within that world; therefore, we need to do things that don’t undermine the natural environment on which we ultimately depend.

  3. Finally, our governmental agencies provide us a way to act together to build the world we want, one consistent with environmental limits.

I truly believe that our action at the local and state level on land use issues can be particularly important as we face the environmental challenges that are putting our civilization in peril; therefore, my advice is to get involved, and to get involved now!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Sierra Club, California
http://www.sierraclubcalifornia.org/

Sierra Club, Ventana Chapter (Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties)
http://ventana.sierraclub.org/current/index.shtml

Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter (Santa Clara and San Benito Counties)
http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/

Sierra Club, Santa Lucia Chapter (San Luis Obispo County)
http://santalucia.sierraclub.org/

Archives of past transcripts are available here


LandWatch's mission is to protect Monterey County's future by addressing climate change, community health, and social inequities in housing and infrastructure. By encouraging greater public participation in planning, we connect people to government, address human needs and inspire conservation of natural resources.

 

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