Salinas Valley farmland may well be the most economically productive farmland in the world. And I’m not exaggerating! California is this nation’s top agricultural state, in a number of categories, and the economic value of agriculture in California is on the order of $30 billion dollars per year.

The gross economic production of agriculture in Monterey County is on the order of $3 billion dollars per year. That’s ten percent of California’s total production. Check out a map. The Salinas Valley and the rest of Monterey County contain about one percent of the state’s commercial farmland. That one percent, in Monterey County, produces ten percent of the total state output. In other words, agricultural land in Monterey County is ten times as economically productive, on an acre for acre basis, as other farmland in the state.

The economy of Monterey County is based on agriculture. Converting productive agricultural land to other uses has significant (and largely negative) economic impacts. Tomorrow night, in Greenfield, located right in the heart of the Salinas Valley, the City Council will be considering yet another conversion of prime Salinas Valley farmland to residential and similar development. As ever, when the public interest is affected by proposed decisions of public agencies, it would be good for the public to get directly involved. There is more information at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Greenfield City Website
http://ci.greenfield.ca.us/

August 2, 2005 City Council Agenda
http://ci.greenfield.ca.us/agenda.htm

Yesterday, I noted that the Greenfield City Council will be considering the conversion of some of the prime farmland surrounding Greenfield at the City Council meeting being held at the Greenfield City Hall at 6:00 o’clock this evening.

Greenfield, of course, shouldn’t be singled out. Every city in the Salinas Valley is proposing exactly the same kind of expansion onto surrounding farmlands. The City of Salinas, for instance, wants to annex and convert something like 3,000 acres of farmland, all in one fell swoop.

And then there is the farmland conversion issue as related to what counties do. The continued conversion of prime farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls will eventually undermine the agricultural economy of Monterey County, just as it has destroyed the agricultural economy of Los Angeles County, Orange County, and Santa Clara County, and just as it is undermining the agricultural economy of many Central Valley counties, even at this moment. Cities aren’t the only ones involved. When county governments allow nonagricultural uses on agricultural lands, they speed the process along. Today, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is considering amendments to the San Luis Obispo County General Plan to facilitate a commercial development on 131 acres of agricultural land, at the request of the San Luis Obispo Marketplace Associates. Check the KUSP website for more information.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Greenfield City Website
http://ci.greenfield.ca.us/

August 2, 2005 City Council Agenda
http://ci.greenfield.ca.us/agenda.htm

San Luis Obispo County Website
http://www.co.slo.ca.us/SLOCo_InterPortal.nsf/index.htm?OpenForm

Board of Supervisors Agenda
http://www.co.slo.ca.us/Board_of_Supervisors_Inter.nsf/
Agendas_ag080205.htm?OpenPage&charset=windows-1252

To receive email action alerts on key San Luis Obispo County land use and environmental issues, please contact EPI at .

Cities, Counties, and Special Districts are all local government agencies, and the actions taken by these public bodies have a profound impact on the character, timing, and location of future development. In turn, development decisions help shape the future of our local communities. The land use decisions made by our local government representatives are among the most important decisions that affect our lives.

Usually, we think of what we do, individually, as the “most important thing.” And, of course, the decisions that we each make, individually, are critically important for the future – for our own individual futures and for our future together. Individual actions do add up, and with individual action begins every new thing in the world. We are not, however, only individuals. We are “in this together,” whether we like it or not, and whether we acknowledge it or not. Therefore, these “community level” decisions that we often ignore are just as critical to our future as our individual decisions. Community decisions, like individual decisions, create new realities.

If I exhort you to get involved in helping to make those decisions at the community level, and to make democratic selfgovernment work the way it’s supposed to, it’s because of this philosophical vision of what our lives are really all about. Human beings are the “creators” of the world we most immediately inhabit, and the actions we take, collective and individual, establish the “realities” which ultimately determine our lives.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

Since 1998, I’ve been working for LandWatch Monterey County, to help promote and inspire sound land use policy through grassroots community action. In these KUSP Land Use Reports, I’ve tried to draw attention to land use issues as they affect the residents of the entire Central Coast. The decisions made by our elected representatives at the local level, where we can “get to them,” and influence them, will have a profound impact on the future of our local economy, on our natural environment, and on our efforts to build a just and humane society.

My experience as an elected member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors convinced me of the importance of local government, and of our ability, acting in our local communities, to make positive changes. That said, I don’t want to slight the importance of state government, either. In our federal system, the state level of government is in fact the most basic level of government, and the rules made at the state level establish the framework in which local government operates, and in many ways determine what happens in our local communities.

Starting next month, I am going to be serving as the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, which works at the state level for sound environmental policies. If you start hearing a bit more about what’s happening in Sacramento, and around the state, don’t think it’s any less important to get involved in land use issues at the local level, right here on the Central Coast. I don’t want to let any of us off the hook!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

Coastwatcher.com is a website I’m happy to recommend. Coastwatcher follows the activities of the California Coastal Commission, and is a valuable tool for those who want to participate meaningfully in some of the most important decisions that affect our future.

The July issue of Coastwatcher has the following headline: “Coastal Commission Is Legal!” Now, many of you may not have known that there was ever a question about that. In fact, though, a legal challenge, pending since 2002, raised basic questions about the legality of everything the Coastal Commission did, and even of its very existence. The California Supreme Court has now resolved this legal challenge, and has found that the composition of the Coastal Commission is fully consistent with the State Constitution. If you’ll click on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org, you can find a reference to the full Court opinion.

The challenge to the Commission revolved on whether or not it was independent of the State Legislature, or whether its composition violated the “Separation of Powers” doctrine that is fundamental to American government, and that is part of the California Constitution. The Third District Court of Appeal (located more than 100 miles from the coast) found a fatal flaw, thus putting the entire coastal program in jeopardy. The Supreme Court decision has preserved the Commission, and this nation’s most successful program of coastal protection.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Coastwatcher
http://www.coastwatcher.com/

Marine Forest Society v. California Coastal Commission
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S113466.PDF