The Santa Cruz County Transportation Funding Task Force has two more meetings scheduled (and these will probably be the final meetings). Tonight, the first of those two meetings will be held at the Shoreline Middle School in Live Oak, beginning at 6:30. The second meeting is scheduled for November 14th, at the Del Mar Elementary School. You can get more information, including the agenda for tonight’s meeting, by clicking on the Land Use Report link on the KUSP website.

The first major item of business tonight is a discussion of a recent poll, paid for by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.* The Commission is trying to figure out what set of transportation improvement projects the public might be willing to pay for. As you may remember, the Commission asked the voters in 2004 whether they would be willing to increase the local sales tax, for thirty years, to pay for the widening of Highway One. A 2/3 vote was needed, and the proposition didn’t even get a majority vote. The Commission keeps looking for something the public would be willing to pay for, and the poll is interesting. One way of reading it is to say that more people would like to invest in rail, than in a widening of Highway One.**

The meeting tonight will be moving towards a decision, and it’s slated to go till 10:30. If you care about the future of land use and transportation planning in Santa Cruz County, you should be there!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission
http://www.sccrtc.org/

Voter Survey Results
http://www.tftaskforce.org/1029Meeting/
VoterSurveyAnalysisAndResults.pdf

Transportation Funding Task Force Website
http://www.tftaskforce.org/welcome.htm

Agenda, October 29, 2007 Meeting
http://www.tftaskforce.org/1029Meeting.htm

* It’s interesting to note, reviewing the poll results, that the Supervisorial District with the least support for paying for new transportation infrastructure, the First Supervisorial or “Live Oak” District, is represented by the Supervisor (Jan Beautz) who has probably been the strongest proponent of widening Highway One.

** On page 30 of the survey results, it’s reported that 20% of the respondents strongly agreed that “we should raise taxes and move ahead with the widening of Highway One,” while 27% strongly agreed with the statement that adding passenger train service, and bike and pedestrian and other “non road” improvements can solve our transportation problems.

There’s a meeting of the Marina City Council this evening, and it’s an important meeting for mobilehome park residents who live in Marina. Under Agenda Item 7a., the City Council will consider whether to update its Request for Proposals for consultant services related to a market study of mobilehome park rents, and consider appointing two members of the City Council to act as a sub-committee, along with the City Attorney and City Manager, to review proposals, and then to make recommendations to the full Council on the selection of a consultant to complete the mobilehome park rent study.

There are a lot of mobilehome parks in Marina, and the City Council has rejected, on several occasions, a call to enact some kind of mobilehome park rent control, to protect residents against predatory pricing practices. The study that the Council will be talking about tonight would, presumably, either demonstrate that there is a real problem with those kind of predatory practices, or that there’s not. If you live in a mobilehome park in Marina, I suggest that you get engaged in the discussion of this issue, since it will affect you very directly. There is more information below.

For everyone else, let me note the fact that a local government body has the right to enact what amounts to price control within its jurisdiction, and that this demonstrates the broad scope of the “police power,” which can be used to advance the general public good.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

City of Marina Website
http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/

City Council Agenda
http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/council/2007/20071030.pdf

Happy Halloween! In accordance with the spirit of the day, I’m reporting on some potentially scary items relating to land use policy. I’m also alerting you to a “treat,” because Temple Beth El is giving away free Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. Find out how to pick up yours, and help reduce global warming (pretty scary itself) below.

Here is a list of potentially scary items:

• The County of Santa Cruz is considering a relaxation of its rules governing “Accessory Structures,” which could lead to lots of development in rural areas that might have rather significant environmental impacts.
• The City of Monterey will be considering an amendment to its condominium conversion ordinance, possibly without the benefit of a full Environmental Impact Report, and that could mean the displacement of lower income residents.
• UCSC is advancing its proposed “Terrace Point” development, which could have big traffic impacts on the Westside of the City of Santa Cruz.
• The Monterey County Planning Commission, meeting today, is considering regulations to allow “condominium hotels.”
• Finally, the City of Greenfield and the County of Monterey are getting ready to sign an agreement allowing Greenfield to turn huge areas of prime agricultural land into housing tracts.

In all cases, what would be most scary is for such policy changes to proceed without full public engagement.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Free Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs are available at the Temple Beth El Gift Shop during October, November and December; through Chanukah, or while supplies last. Two free bulbs per person will be given to anyone visiting the Temple Beth El Gift Shop. No purchase is necessary. For more information, please contact Karen Kaplan at 831-335-3342 (11 AM - 11 PM). Temple Beth El is located at 3055 Porter Gulch Road in Aptos. Gift Shop Hours are as follows: M, T, Th & F: 10 AM - 4 PM; Sun. 9:30 AM - 1 PM; Wed. 10 AM - 6 PM; Sat. Closed. Some Possibly “Scary” Items:

• Accessory Structures
  http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/planning/
  plnmeetings/PLNSupMaterial/PC/agendas/
  2007/20071024/009.pdf
  
  
• City of Monterey Condominium Conversion
  http://www.monterey.org/boards/planning/
  agendas/2007/1023pcdraftannotated.pdf
  
  
• UCSC Terrace Point
  Contact Santa Cruz CLUE at info@santacruzCLUE.org
  
  
• Monterey County Condominium Hotels
  http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/planning/
  cca/pc/2007/10-31-07/PD061172PC2.pdf
  
  
• Greenfield growth
  http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_7240689

Climate change may mean drought. It certainly seems to mean wildfires. It all adds up to water problems, and you’d think that we’d be trying to make water use efficiency our top state priority. Not so, however.

There are a few bright spots. Assembly Member John Laird, for instance, just succeeded in getting the Governor to sign a bill he authored, which will start making toilet fixtures more water use efficient. It’s amazing how much water you can save, if you just try to save it. The Planning and Conservation League authored a report entitled “An Investment Strategy for California Water” that lays it all out.

The biggest thing that the state is doing right now, though, is preparing to ratify the so-called “Monterey Amendments,” proposed changes to the State Water Project Contracts that would give away the state’s largest water storage facility to private interests, and eliminate the “urban preference” for water use in the event of a major drought.

Some years ago, when the Department of Water Resources proposed these changes, the Planning and Conservation League challenged them in court. And PCL won. The court did permit the state to operate provisionally under the so-called “Monterey Amendments,” but only pending a full-scale environmental review. The Draft EIR is now out, with a comment deadline in December. You can find out all about it, and how to get involved, below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey Plus EIR
http://www.des.water.ca.gov/mitigation_restoration_branch/
rpmi_section/projects/index.cfm

PCL’s “Investment Strategy For California Water”
http://www.pcl.org/pcl_files/InvestmentStrategy_11_18_04.pdf

PCL’s Press Release on the Monterey Amendments
http://www.pcl.org/newsroom/102507montereyeir.html

AB 715 (Laird) on high-efficiency toilets
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/
a27/press/20071011AD27PR01.htm

On Halloween, I identified global warming as one of those “scary” things that haunts our future. And haunts our present, for that matter. Those who have been following the issue know that real changes, right here, and right now, are absolutely required if we’re going to meet the ambitious goals we’ve set ourselves under AB 32. And we may have underestimated, not overestimated, what we will have to do, truly to roll back global warming emissions.

Tomorrow, on Saturday, November 3rd, the grassroots group People Power will hold a “Step It Up” action in the City of Santa Cruz, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. I’d encourage you to head downtown, making a particular beeline for Bookshop Santa Cruz. That block of Pacific Avenue will be given over to visions of a sustainable Santa Cruz, and (you have to love this) “valet bike parking will be provided by People Power.” There will be a group “Step It Up” picture scheduled at 3:00 o’clock. If you haven’t heard about “Step It Up,” which has actions planned for all over the country tomorrow, you can find out more on the KUSP website.

A profound change will be needed in land use policy if California is going to reach its AB 32 goals (and if our nation, and the world, are going to be successful in combating global warming). Auto-dependent sprawl is probably the single largest cause of the global warming emissions that are putting our planet in peril.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Contact People Power at 831-425-0665

The soon to be ready People Power website
http://www.peoplepower.org/

Step It Up Climate Actions on November 3rd
http://events.stepitup2007.org/november/invites/map

Lifestyle Changes Required
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/
c/a/2007/10/27/MNBBT1SFF.DTL