I'd like to recommend another meeting this evening, as well. LandWatch Monterey County and the Rancho San Juan Opposition Coalition are sponsoring a meeting to be held at the Aromas Grange. The meeting will start at 7:00 p.m., and will focus on all the latest news on Rancho San Juan, the biggest development project in the history of Monterey County. The Rancho San Juan project faces five lawsuits and a voter referendum. Find out what's going on, and what you can do, by attending the meeting tonight. There is more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

For more information on the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail, and the meeting tonight, contact Lisa Rheinheimer at 831-775-0903, or by email at . Information is also available from Candace Ingram at 831-373-3609, and by email at: . The meeting this evening will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The City Council Chambers are located at 211 Hillcrest Avenue in Marina.

The Aromas Grange is located at the corner of Rose and Bardue, in Aromas. Directions and more information on the meeting can be found at http://www.landwatch.org/pages/calendar.htm#rancho

The proposed Rancho San Juan development would be the biggest development in the history of Monterey County, if ever brought to completion. Rancho San Juan is facing five lawsuits (including lawsuits by CALTRANS and the City of Salinas) and has been challenged by a successful voter referendum effort.

However, that isn't stopping the Monterey County Board of Supervisors from continuing to pour millions of dollars of taxpayer funds into this controversial development. Today, as Item #36 on the Board of Supervisors' Consent Agenda, County staff is seeking authority to spend $325,000 to “redesign” the project that the Board has already approved. Last week, the Board also authorized additional money for Rancho San Juan, and apparently, the taxpayers have now spent something like three or four million dollars to advance the Rancho San Juan development. Having already spent that money, the Board is now thinking about throwing another third of a million dollars into the pot.

Listeners (and Monterey County taxpayers) should be asking these questions: “Why are the taxpayers paying for the costs of processing this development proposal, since the profits will go to the private developer? And why spend more taxpayer money before the voters and the courts have their say?” The answers to these questions may or may not be revealed at the Board meeting today. They're certainly questions worth asking! Stop in to the Board meeting at 9:30 this morning, if you're in Salinas.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

May 17, 2005 Agenda, Monterey County Board of Supervisors
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/bmagenda.htm

Information on Rancho San Juan
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/
issuesactions/northcounty.html

Castroville and Carmel Valley don't have a whole lot in common, although they are both under the planning jurisdiction of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. And they're both hip deep in planning and land use issues. That's true. And tonight and tomorrow night, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., there will be two different meetings, to discuss some of the important planning issues relating to these two different communities. You can get more information by clicking on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org.

The Castroville meeting will be held this evening at the Castroville Elementary School, and the Carmel Valley meeting will be held tomorrow evening at the Monterey County Courthouse on Aguajito Road.

At issue in Castroville is how the infrastructure policies of the County General Plan might relate to future development in Castroville. In Carmel Valley, the focus is not on overall planning, but on a particular development proposal, the so-called “Rancho Cañada Village” project, near the mouth of the Carmel Valley.

In Castroville, community planning is coming before project proposals are considered, as is the logical and “correct” procedure. In Carmel Valley, the Rancho Cañada Village proposal has led the County to consider changes to the Carmel Valley Master Plan, to eliminate General Plan requirements that would prevent the development. If you think that's backwards, maybe you'd better show up at the Carmel Valley meeting tomorrow night!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

The Castroville meeting will be held this evening, May 18th, in the Castroville Elementary School Cafeteria, located at 1116 Merritt Street, Castroville. The meeting is scheduled to run from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The Carmel Valley meeting will not actually be held in Carmel Valley, but in the multi-purpose room of the Monterey County Courthouse, located at 1200 Aguajito Road, Monterey. The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening, May 19th, to run from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The County planner assigned to review the Rancho Cañada Village project is Jacqueline Onciano, who can be reached by telephone at 831-883-7590 or by email at . 

If you'd like to get involved with citizen-based efforts to make sure that the proposed Rancho Cañada Village project doesn't have adverse flooding, traffic, and other impacts in Carmel Valley, contact Margaret Robbins by email at , or you can contact LandWatch at .

As a popular service to KUSP listeners, the Land Use Report likes to alert you to upcoming meetings where you can make a difference in critically-important land use matters. Like that meeting tonight about the proposed Rancho Cañada Village project in Carmel Valley. If you missed the Land Use Report yesterday, and want to know what I'm talking about, please click on the Land Use Report link at the KUSP website. That's where you'll find transcripts of each of these reports, usually with additional information, and where it's easy to send me an email comment or suggestion.

Perhaps an even more popular service might be my less frequent but I think greatly appreciated announcements of upcoming opportunities for listeners actually to get out into the wonderful environment of the Central Coast region. Here are a couple of opportunities coming up:

• On Sunday, May 22nd, join the California Native Plant Society on an 8-12 hour tour of Fort Hunter Liggett in southern Monterey County. This is both a botanical and an historical outing.

• On June 5th, also a Sunday, Doc Miller and Elizabeth Appel of San Luis Obispo County will host a wildflower open house on the 350-acre East-West Ranch, featuring a 2-3 mile gentle hike.Doc and Elizabeth just completed the first annual Cambria wildflower show with 400 species on display!

There's more information on the website.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

For information on the Fort Hunter Liggett outing, and to make a reservation, contact Corky Matthews at 831?-659?-2528. Space is limited.

For information on the East-West Ranch wildflower hike, call Bruce Delgado at 831-384-1376.

Developers have their trade journals, just like academics have theirs. If you start getting interested in planning and land use issues, you may want to start checking out some of the publications that are devoted to land use and development topics.

Just a few days ago, for instance, I got an email alert from the California Planning & Development Report, published in Ventura, highlighting some interesting stories in their most recent issue, and urging me to subscribe at a discounted rate. I thought I'd pass on both the news story and the discount offer. If you do get serious about land use and planning, it's good to keep in touch with what's happening in other areas, not only in California, but nationally and even internationally as well. You can get more information by clicking on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org.

In terms of the news stories, the feature article was about Murrietta, California, located in Riverside County, where local residents formed a group called Rescue Murrieta in response to several controversial project approvals that resulted in rapid growth, traffic congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open space and other ills. They targeted the Mayor and two Council Members, contending that they were beholden to developers, and successfully recalled the Mayor in an election held on May 3rd. Never say land use issues can't be exciting!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

California Planning & Development Report
http://www.cp-dr.com/binn/main.taf

Discount Subscription Offer
http://www.cp-dr.com/binn/main.taf?function=subscribe

Other good sites for planning and development information (all free):

• 1,000 Friends of Oregon
  http://www.friends.org/
  
  
• Greenbelt Alliance
  http://www.greenbelt.org/
  
  
• Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
  http://www.lincolninst.edu/index-high.asp
  
  
• Smart Growth America
  http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/
  
  
• The Local Government Commission Center For Livable Communities
  http://www.lgc.org/center/index.html