This week, the proposed Coast Hotel project in the City of Santa Cruz is up for discussion, debate and decision. Residents should plan to speak up now, if they care about the Coast Hotel project. Since it’s a large and very significant project, it’s certainly worth your attention. A Council vote to approve would mean a $30 million dollar investment of City funds into the convention center business, and would result in the construction of a new six-story parking garage, right off West Cliff Drive, financed by city taxpayers. The bulk and scale of the proposed hotel, and its neighborhood and traffic impacts, are all serious issues.

The City Council has scheduled consideration of the Coast Hotel for two different meetings, but they’re planning to allow public testimony only at the smaller of these meetings. The official public hearing will be held at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, at the City Council Chambers. On Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., the meeting will continue at the Civic Auditorium, but the public is apparently not going to be allowed to speak at the Civic. If you want to speak, show up on Tuesday. If you just want to spectate, then Wednesday’s “ok.”

The Land Use Report has an “unhidden agenda” in favor of citizen participation. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Coast Hotel vote, so I hope many listeners will show up tomorrow, Tuesday, to give some direction to their elected representatives.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Access to the Santa Cruz City Council Agenda and other materials relating to the proposed Coast Hotel project are available on the City’s Website
http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/

Tonight at 7:00 p.m., citizens and residents of the City of Santa Cruz have an opportunity to speak out on the proposed Coast Hotel and convention center project, which could have such a major effect on the future of Santa Cruz. More information is available at www.kusp.org.

Land use decisions are ordinarily made by local elected officials. It’s expected, for instance, that the brand new Santa Cruz City Council will vote on Wednesday to approve, deny, or modify the hotel and convention center project.

It’s not true, however, that local officials always have the “last word.” The voters in any California city or county retain the right to overrule their elected representatives when local officials just don’t seem to “get it,” in terms of what the majority of the community wants.

In Monterey County, the Board of Supervisors voted last month to approve the largest development ever proposed in the history of the County, Rancho San Juan. Last week, citizens turned in more than 16,000 signatures of registered voters, demanding that the people get to vote. The Board of Supervisors amended the General Plan to accommodate the Rancho San Juan development, instead of making the developer follow the General Plan. Because of the Constitutionally-guaranteed right of referendum, the voters are now probably going to get to make that decision for themselves.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Access to the Santa Cruz City Council Agenda and other materials relating to the proposed Coast Hotel project are available on the City’s Website
http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/

More information on Rancho San Juan, and the referendum, is available on the LandWatch website
http://www.landwatch.org

County documents relating to Rancho San Juan are found at
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/pbi/major/rsj/rsj_main.htm

A couple of interesting public participation opportunities are coming up this week, and in fact, as early as this evening. Tonight, at 7:00 o’clock, the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District, in cooperation with the City of Marina, will be holding a Public Input Workshop to help “master plan” the Locke Paddon Wetland Park located along Reservation Road in the City of Marina. Purkiss Rose-RSI, the landscape architects who are designing the park, will be present. The workshop will be held at the Holiday Inn Express, 189 Seaside Court in Marina, right next to the wetland park. Getting the public involved early in the process is always a good idea. For Marina residents, and those interested in a park development intended to honor a natural wetland, instead of wiping it out, the meeting this evening should be worthwhile.

Friday, January 21st, you’re invited to participate in a field trip to see the management and restoration of Maritime Chaparral at Fort Ord. The field trip will go from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and will provide an indepth look at a threatened habitat type. This trip may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re interested in the biology of environmental conservation, think about signing up. You do need to make a reservation. Instructions can be found at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

For more information on the Locke Paddon Wetland Park Public Input Workshop, please contact Tim Jensen, Special Projects Manager at the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District – 831-372-3196, Ext. 2, or Marina City Council Member Gary Wilmot, at

To sign up for the January 21st Field Trip, contact workshop organizer Cynthia Harrington at . Or call Cynthia at 831-460-9453.

As I mentioned last week, the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission is proposing to spend a hundred thousand dollars or more of public funds to carry out an environmental analysis of a project that local voters have overwhelmingly rejected. Last November, voters soundly defeated a proposal to finance the widening of Highway One, but the local elected officials who sit on the Transportation Commission apparently aren’t getting the message. Had the bond measure passed, doing an EIR would be the obvious, and required, next step. But it didn’t pass. In fact, it didn’t even come close. Therefore, why would public officials, entrusted with the duty to spend public money wisely, spend public money for a set of studies on a project that isn’t going to happen? I’m sorry to keep raising this question, but I pay taxes, too.

Tonight, at 7:00 p.m., in the Board of Supervisors Chambers, the Transportation Commission is holding a meeting to hear public comments. Almost everyone has a stake in finding techniques that could reduce congestion on Highway One, so tonight might be a good time to get the Transportation Commission to drop its proposal to do an EIR on the widening project, and have them direct the funds, instead, into the development of some possible smaller projects, like ramp metering, and highway management, that might actually happen, and that could make a big difference.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Transportation Commission Website
http://www.sccrtc.org/body.html

Flyer for January 20, 2005 Meeting
http://www.sccrtc.org/pdf/hwy1-alts-flyer

Detailed Report on Alternatives To Be Studied
http://www.sccrtc.org/pdf/hwy1-alts-detail

On January 11th, eighteen local community groups delivered a “Community General Plan” to the Board of Supervisors of Monterey County. The professional planner who helped develop the Plan called it “world class,” and a broad array of local residents stepped forward to endorse its principles. Notably, the Monterey County Sheriff spoke out on the impacts that land use decisions have on public safety. “I am not a ‘no growth’ advocate,” he said, “but I do think that new developments have to pay their own way, where public safety is concerned.” In fact, the Community General Plan contains policies that require just that. A local rancher said, “I’d like my son to be the fifth generation of my family to farm my land.” His land is right next door to a proposed rural subdivision that will come before the Board of Supervisors in about two weeks, and that would probably drive him out of business if it were approved.

The basic concept of the Community General Plan is not to “stop growth.” What community members said they wanted wasn’t a “no growth” approach for Monterey County, but an approach that directs growth into cities and other areas specifically set aside for urban development, and that prevents the disintegration and destruction of agricultural and rural lands. Getting to that kind of an approach to growth really would be a “world class” achievement. There is more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

More information on the Community General Plan, including the text of the Plan, is available at http://www.landwatch.org, and http://www.8of10monterey.com/pages/community.html