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Week of November 15, 2004 to November 19, 2004 |
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ogo.gif" width="108" height="109" border="0"> "Listen Live" |
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 November 15, 2004 to November 19, 2004
The following Land Use Reports have been presented on KUSP Radio by Gary Patton, Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of its sponsors.
| Monday, November 15, 2004 – Rancho San Juan |
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The Monterey County Planning Commission will hold a special meeting today, starting a 12:00 o’clock noon, and will continue their public hearing tomorrow, starting at 5:00 p.m. These special meetings will consider the largest development ever proposed in Monterey County, the Rancho San Juan Specific Plan. The Plan proposes to convert farmland to homes for 14,000 persons, just outside the Salinas city limits. The Rancho San Juan Specific Plan would increase water overdraft in an area already suffering from overdraft, and from declining water quality. It would add 70,000 new trips, each day, to the congested Highway 101 corridor, and the developer would apparently not have to pay anything to eliminate those traffic impacts. The fiscal analysis shows that approving the Rancho San Juan Specific Plan would have very significant and negative impacts on the fiscal condition of Monterey County. You would think, in view of the scale and potential impacts of this proposal, that the Rancho San Juan Specific Plan might take some time to review. That isn’t what the County staff thinks! Even before the Planning Commission has begun to consider this project, the staff has set a hearing before the Board of Supervisors to approve it, two days before Thanksgiving. I’ll tell you more about that, tomorrow. In the meantime, think about participating in those Planning Commission hearings today and tomorrow. Use your chance to give testimony on a project that could profoundly affect your life. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, November 16, 2004 – Something Is Happening |
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“Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” That line comes from Bob Dylan’s song, “Ballad of a Thin Man,” from the “Highway 61 Revisited” album. In Monterey County, in the area of land use policy, something is happening. And we now know what it is. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors is set to approve, between now and the end of the year, three massive development projects that will make tens or maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars for campaign contributors to Board Members, and that will forever change the shape and character of Monterey County. One of these projects is Rancho San Juan. The Planning Commission is holding a hearing on that project tonight, and the Board of Supervisors is already scheduled for a hearing to approve it next week, on Tuesday the 23rd, two days before Thanksgiving. The Planning Commission and the Board are also preparing to approve the East Garrison project on Fort Ord. This project, on land 100% owned by the public, may well be the second largest residential development project in the County’s history. 80% of the housing will be unaffordable to average income workers and residents, and over 5,000 oak trees will be destroyed. The County is also, and simultaneously, preparing to approve the proposed Pebble Beach development that will cut down some 17,000 Monterey Pine Trees for a new golf course. For references, check the KUSP website. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, November 17, 2004 – Affordable Housing Meeting Today |
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A “Critical Issues Forum” is being held at noon today by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, in cooperation with the Santa Cruz, Monterey Peninsula, and Salinas Valley leadership organizations. The meeting will explore “Housing Affordability: Working Solutions on the Central Coast.” You can get more information at www.kusp.org. “Affordable housing” discussions tend to be a lot like discussions about the weather. People focus on the topic, alright, but not much that’s said seems to change the prevailing conditions. This is understandable. We live in a society that asserts, as a matter of principle, that the private “market” is the best way to address many of our most important problems. And of course, the purpose of those producing and selling things in a private market is to get the highest price possible for what they sell. In the Central Coast region, the “affordability” crisis for local workers and residents comes from the fact that the “market” includes anyone, anywhere, who would like to own real property in Monterey County. Local people simply get outbid. The only real solution would be to require housing developers to sell a greater share of their stock at lower prices (that’s called price control or “inclusionary housing”), but local governments just don’t do it, even on land 100% owned by the public—and I am talking about Fort Ord, where the meeting today is being held. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, November 18, 2004 – Marina Contract With The LGC |
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For about ten years, during the time I served on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, I headed up a statewide group called the Local Government Commission. The LGC is an unusual group. Its membership is comprised of elected City Council Members and the elected members of Boards of Supervisors from throughout California. It’s the only organization that puts both City Council Members and members of Boards of Supervisors together. The concept is that local governments, if they act individually, but to carry out a common agenda, can affect major changes in the direction of the state as a whole. In fact, this strategy works. The LGC was fabulously successful in the area of energy conservation and alternative energy. It did great work on toxics, solid waste and recycling, and has had notable successes with childcare and other social service programs. Most recently, the LGC has focused on land use policy. On Wednesday, the City of Marina actually entered into a contract with the Local Government Commission, through which the LGC will help Marina revitalize and transform its “downtown” area, by incorporating the elements of New Urbanism and Traditional Neighborhood Design. If you know a member of a City Council, or a member of a Board of Supervisors, you might ask them whether they’ve joined the LGC, and if the answer is “no,” give them a nudge. Your community will probably be better off if they do. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, November 19, 2004 – Report on the “Community GPU” Process |
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I often suggest that listeners click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org to get access to the transcripts of my Land Use Reports. I almost always include one or more web references with the transcript. You can also send me an email with your comments and suggestions. If you’ll check the transcript for today’s Report, you’ll find a link to the website maintained by the Coalition To Protect Housing, Farmland, Air & Water, one of the eighteen community groups sponsoring a “Community GPU” effort in Monterey County. The “Community GPU” website is being hosted by the Coalition, and I’ve got a reference to that website, too. I encourage you to visit it. As of last Saturday, the groups sponsoring the “Community GPU” effort held their fifth and final Community Forum, at the Los Arboles Middle School in Marina. Forums were held throughout the County, and involved a professional planner, who has been working to build a General Plan that conforms to the Twelve Guiding Objectives that were developed out of hundreds of hours of public meetings, and that were adopted by both the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. There is still time for you to have an impact on the process. You can review the latest draft of the “Community GPU” on the website, and can send in a comment. If you do, the planner will provide a response, and you’ll be helping to shape the future of Monterey County’s General Plan. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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CONTACT 306 Capitol Street #101 PO Box 1876 Phone (831) 759-2824 Fax (831) 759-2825 |
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