The California Coastal Commission is a state agency. Initially, the Commission was created by the adoption of a statewide voter initiative, passed in 1972. Later on, in 1976, the State Legislature enacted the Coastal Act, to make sure that a Coastal Commission would continue in existence, since the initiative measure established the Commission for a limited time period only.

Although the Coastal Commission is a state agency, it also operates under certain provisions of federal law, namely the Coastal Zone Management Act. Under that federal statute, certain federal powers are essentially “delegated” to qualified state agencies, to ensure the long term health of the nation’s coastline and marine environment. Instead of creating a separate state agency to qualify under the federal law, California named the Coastal Commission. That means, getting to the bottom line, that the Coastal Commission is responsible not only to the State Legislature, but to the federal government as well. The federal agency with supervisory jurisdiction over the Coastal Commission is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Tomorrow, at 7:00 p.m., NOAA is going to be holding a “review hearing,” to get testimony on how the Coastal Commission is doing. The hearing will be held at the Santa Cruz Police Community Room, at 155 Center Street. You can also comment in writing. There’s more information on the KUSP website.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

NOAA will accept written comments on the performance of the State Coastal Commission under the Coastal Zone Management Act until July 8, 2005. Send such comments to Ralph Cantral at ,or by surface mail to NOAA/NOS/OCRM, 1305 East-West Highway (N/ORM7), Silver Spring, MD 20910.

The local review hearing will be held at the City of Santa Cruz Police Department Community Room, 155 Center Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

You may also get information from Rebecca Roth at the Coastal Commission – .

Save Our Shores is a nonprofit based in Santa Cruz, but that is active throughout the entire Central Coast region. As regular listeners to this Land Use Report know, I like to emphasize that good land use policy is closely tied to marine and coastal protection. What we do on the land definitely affects what happens in Monterey Bay, and in the larger ocean environment. Groups like Save Our Shores and the Ocean Conservancy know that, and while they work most directly on what we might call “water based” issues, they pay close attention to the coastal and marine impacts of our land use policy choices.

This year, Save Our Shores is sponsoring a “Stewardship Series,” dedicated to educating Central Coast residents on how they can be more effectively involved in the environmental issues that the region is facing. The four-part series is funded by a grant from the Center for Venture Philanthropy, as part of its Environmental Solutions Forum.

The third session of the Save Our Shores Stewardship series has been set for Wednesday, June 22nd (that’s tomorrow), from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Moss Landing Chamber of Commerce Building in Moss Landing. The topic for discussion tomorrow is “A Citizen’s Role in Water Supply Alternatives on the Central Coast: Impacts and Opportunities for Our Coasts and Oceans.”

There is more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Save Our Shores Website
http://www.saveourshores.org/

SOS Stewardship Program
http://www.saveourshores.org/Education_&_Outreach/
Sanctuary_Stewards/index.html

Center for Venture Philanthropy
http://www.pcf.org/venture_philanthropy/

The Prunedale Improvement Project (and I’m compelled to say that it’s a PIP of a project) is intended to improve safety and traffic operations in the Prunedale Area in Monterey County. This is a project that has been a long time in the making. The Prunedale Area along Highway 101 is dangerous, and sometimes quite congested, particularly as tourist traffic hits the 101 corridor when there are big events on the Monterey Peninsula.

Tomorrow, on June 23rd, the California Department of Transportation, or CALTRANS, will be holding a public hearing to provide information about the Prunedale Improvement Project. CALTRANS does call it the “PIP.” There will be an opportunity to review preliminary project plans and maps, and to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report that has been prepared on the project. Staff from CALTRANS will be present to answer questions.

If you’d like to participate, the hearing is scheduled from 4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the North Monterey County High School Auditorium, located at 13990 Castroville Boulevard. This “public hearing” is really more like an “Open House.” You can just “drop in.” There are lots of exhibits to visit, and you can make in-person or written comments to the staff members present at the various exhibit stations. If you’d like to review the full Draft Environmental Impact Report, check the KUSP website for locations where it’s available.  

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

CALTRANS District 5 Website
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/

Project Website
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/prunedale/index.htm

The PIP DEIR is available at:

• The TAMC Office, 55 B Plaza Circle, Salinas. Telephone: 831-775-0903
  
  
• The Prunedale Branch Library, 17822 Moro Road, Prunedale. Telephone: 831-663-2292
  
• The Steinbeck-Salinas Public Library, 350 Lincoln Avenue, Salinas. Telephone: 831-758-7311

Today, I’d like to highlight an agency that may have an incredibly important impact on the future of agriculture, growth, and development in both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. This is the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency, or PVWMA. Under the state law that established the Agency, the PVWMA is supposed to manage local groundwater resources so as to avoid and ultimately prevent conditions of long-term groundwater overdraft. Groundwater overdraft has a number of attendant problems, including land subsidence and water quality degradation. The Agency is also supposed to ensure that the local economy is built on the basis of reliable, long-term supplies, and that we not continue to rely on long-term overdraft.

To carry out its state-appointed mission, the PVWMA has adopted a “Basin Plan,” and the basic idea is that current overdraft can be eliminated by importing more water into this area from other parts of the state. There’s a problem, however. Water is scarce everywhere, and it’s not all that easy to get permission to import water from somewhere else. Then there’s the cost involved. An import pipeline, to bring water from the Central Valley to the Central Coast, is a very expensive proposition. I think it’s fair to say that the Agency has been having problems both locating and paying for the water that their plan calls for them to import.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

PVWMA Website
http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/

PVWMA Enabling Act
http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/AgencyAct.pdf

Map of the District
http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/

Basin Management Plan
http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/

I often make a pitch for local listeners to show up at one meeting or another, somewhere in the greater Central Coast area. Today, I’m going to suggest a foray outside the Central Coast, to a meeting that will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Tuesday, June 28th, in the Clarion Hotel in Sacramento. There’s a lot more information available at www.kusp.org.

The meeting I’m advertising is actually a workshop targeting the current Farm Bill, being considered in Congress. The workshop will focus on the implications that the Farm Bill has for California, and why the 2007 Farm Bill is critical to the future of California agriculture. Probably, this is not a workshop that everyone will find compelling, but it is geared for farmers, farming organizations, environmental advocates, community organizers, elected officials, and agency representatives and staff who work in our agricultural industry, or on behalf of the continued viability of our agricultural industry.

Agriculture is this region’s basic business. If we want to maintain that business, with all the community benefits that come along with it, then we need to keep agriculture economically viable. Unfortunately, that’s going to take action at the federal and even international level. You can find out more at the “Food and Farm Bill” workshop next Tuesday.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Food and Farm Bill Website
http://www.wripmc.org/NewsAlerts/foodfarmbill.html