Boards of Supervisors meet on Tuesdays, but not necessarily every Tuesday. Tomorrow, for instance, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will not be in session. Not unless some sort of emergency demands that the Board call a Special Meeting. The rules governing when meetings are held, and how they must be advertised, are found in the Ralph M. Brown Act. Serious meeting goers should take a look at that law, either by confronting the raw statute, or by reviewing some of the publications that set out the basic rules in terms that a layperson is likely to understand. If you are of a mind to study up on the public’s right to attend and participate in the meetings of local government agencies, check out the links in today’s Land Use Report blog.

Monterey County residents should know that their Board of Supervisors is meeting tomorrow. There is a link to the agenda at kusp.org/landuse. At 1:30 in the afternoon, the Board will hear a presentation on Regional Urban Design Guidelines for development on the former Fort Ord. The Board is probably also going to approve a proposed California Flats Solar Project, industrializing about 3,000 acres of land in the southeastern corner of Monterey County, approximately seven miles southeast of Parkfield.

Those having a craving for some discussion of land use policy can satisfy that craving tomorrow in Salinas.

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Monterey County Board Agenda Website
• California Government Code – Ralph M. Brown Act
• Brown Act Primer – First Amendment Coalition
• League of Cities Guide To The Brown Act

As I mentioned yesterday, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will receive a presentation this afternoon on proposed Regional Urban Design Guidelines for future development on the former Fort Ord. If you aren’t able conveniently to attend the Board meeting in Salinas this afternoon, it might be more convenient for you to attend this evening’s meeting of the Monterey City Council. That City Council will also be receiving a presentation on these proposed Regional Urban Design Guidelines. I have a link to a City Council staff report in today’s Land Use Report blog.

The Fort Ord Base Reuse Plan requires the preparation of Regional Urban Design Guidelines for the redevelopment of the former Fort Ord, and these Guidelines are supposed to establish a framework for road design, setbacks, building height, landscaping, signage and other matters of visual importance. If you have any quibbles about the visual impact of the shopping center project that was built on Fort Ord lands right next to Highway One in Marina, you could well be interested in whether or not the proposed Guidelines will allow such developments in the future.

The City staff report notes that work on the Guidelines has been delayed. Today, Dover Kohl and Partners, Town Planners will discuss the current status of the project. Those who care about the future of Fort Ord, and the scenic Highway One corridor, should attend one or both of these presentations.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Monterey City Council Agenda – February 3, 2015
• Monterey City Council Staff Report on Fort Ord Guidelines

Water supply issues are of preeminent importance throughout the Monterey Bay Region. If you live in the San Lorenzo Valley, you are not exempt from the need to be concerned about where your next drink of water is going to come from. Lots of water flows down the river, and Valley residents might think that they aren’t going to have quite as much of a problem with future water supply as some of the more urban communities located near the coast. That is not necessarily so! I certainly urge residents of the San Lorenzo Valley to get engaged on water supply issues.

To that end, you might want to attend a “Meet And Greet” meeting with the New Board and District Manager of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District. The composition of the District’s Board of Directors has changed, with the election in November, and changes affecting water service, and the costs of water service, are in the offing. Tonight, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., there is a no-host gathering at the Oak Tree Ristorante, on Highway 9 in Felton. The notice of the meeting tells more about the menu than the topics to be talked about (and I must say the menu looks good). It is my bet that if you have questions and concerns about your current, or future water service, this would be a good gathering to go to.

The District Board has a regular meeting tomorrow, too. I have links to the “Meet And Greet” invitation, and to the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting, and to the website of the Felton FLOW community group, in today’s Land Use Report blog.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Invitation to February 4, 2015 Event
• SLVWD Website
• Felton FLOW Website
• Agenda, February 5, 2015 SLVWD Board Meeting

You may remember my mention of a Santa Cruz County “Unified Corridors” Plan being developed under the direction of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. I want to let you know that the Commission is meeting this morning, in Watsonville, starting at 9:00 o’clock.

As always, you are cordially invited to crash the party, and to see what your locally elected officials are doing. You can even tell them what you think! The Brown Act, mentioned on Monday, requires them to let you have your say!

Meetings of the Transportation Commission are a particularly good way to catch up with the elected officials of Santa Cruz County, since every City in the County has a member representative on the Commission, and all members of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors are members.

The agenda for today’s meeting is extensive, but I do think that Agenda Item #19, on the Unified Corridors Plan, will probably be of most interest to KUSP listeners. For one thing, the Commission is being asked to authorize the expenditure of about a quarter of a million dollars to hire consultants to work on this plan. Track down the link at kusp.org/landuse, if you’d like to learn more about what this rather sizable expenditure is supposed to get us. Basically, it’s supposed to get us a “model” that will then allow the Commission to analyze the multimodal transportation projects that will most improve the local transportation system.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• SCCRTC February 5, 2015 Agenda

Of course, where land use planning is concerned, having a plan and following a plan are two different things. If you don’t actually follow your plan, the plan isn’t worth much, and in many cases, elected Boards of Supervisors and City Councils adopt long range plans of various kinds but then allow landowners and developers to submit projects that are flatly inconsistent with the adopted plans. The Board or the City Council then approves an “amendment” to the plan, along with the project approval, meaning that all the time and money spent on planning is rendered useless. I wrote a book about this once, and thanks to LandWatch Monterey County, it’s still in print, at a most reasonable price. It’s free. Check the link at kusp.org/landuse.

If you would like to plan ahead for some upcoming items of interest on the Coastal Commission’s agenda, items that affect our region, you can find links to those, too. The Commission meets next week in Pismo Beach, and proposed revisions to the Seacliff Village Plan are on the agenda on Wednesday, February 11th.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Land Use And The General Plan
• Coastal Commission Agenda
• Seacliff Village Plan Staff Report