The proposed Hollister General Plan is online, and if you would like to see what’s being proposed you should go to www.kusp.org, and find the transcript for today’s Land Use Report. I’ve also put a link on the KUSP website to the agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting. Starting at 6:30 p.m., the Hollister City Council will be meeting at City Hall, 375 Fifth Street in Hollister, and the most important item on their agenda is consideration of the proposed 2005-2023 General Plan, and the Final Environmental Impact Report that analyzes the proposed General Plan.

Hollister, like the rest of San Benito County, is facing enormous induced growth pressures, coming in great part from economic development that is occurring in Santa Clara County. It’s hard enough to deal with growth when the growth occurs in a balanced manner, with new jobs and industries being developed within the same jurisdiction that is experiencing the need for new residential development and the consequent requirement for the expansion of governmental services. When the jobs are in one jurisdiction, and the residences and public services are being developed elsewhere, good planning is usually at risk.

If you’re a resident of the City of Hollister, be aware that your “Constitution for land use,” accommodating induced growth for the next twenty years, is being voted on by your elected officials tonight.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

City of Hollister Website
http://www.hollister.ca.gov/site/index.asp

Hollister Draft General Plan Online
http://www.hollister.ca.gov/Site/html/about/Genplan2005.asp

City Council Agenda For November 21, 2005 Meeting
http://www.hollister.ca.gov/Upload/Document/D240000376/
ccagenda.November%2021%20%202005.pdf

Two central coast Boards of Supervisors are meeting today. The Board of Supervisors of San Luis Obispo County is holding a regular Board meeting, and a number of key planning items will be on the agenda. One of them is the County’s controversial Transfer of Development Credit program. Such programs are supposed to help protect rural and agricultural areas, “transferring” development from such lands to areas that are more suitable. In fact, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission has conducted a study that seems to demonstrate that the opposite thing is occurring in San Luis Obispo County.

In Monterey County, the Board of Supervisors is also holding a meeting, starting at 9:30 in the morning, but it’s not a “regular” meeting for this Board. Previously scheduled to be “off” during this Thanksgiving week, the Board has now set a “special” meeting to focus on one thing only: the Monterey County General Plan. Legislating by initiative has its pros and cons, and as you will probably remember, there is now an initiative petition circulating in Monterey County, to put a proposed General Plan revision before the voters. After having spent six years and six million dollars on a much overdue General Plan revision, but with no significant progress having been made, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors has now obviously been galvanized into action by this citizen?]based initiative effort. That’s certainly one good thing you can say for it!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

San Luis Obispo County Website

http://www.co.slo.ca.us/SLOCo_InterPortal.nsf/index.htm?OpenForm

Monterey County Website
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/

Agenda For Monterey County Board of Supervisors’ Meeting
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/cttb/specagenda112205.htm

Information on the General Plan Initiative
www.landwatch.org

Monterey County Herald Editorial on General Plan
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/
mcherald/news/editorial/13203787.htm

Agenda For San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors’ Meeting
http://www.co.slo.ca.us/Board_of_Supervisors_Inter.nsf/
Agendas_ag112205.htm?OpenPage&charset=windows-1252

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and the City of Monterey Zoning Administrator is not on holiday. There will be a regular Zoning Administrator meeting, beginning at 4:00 o’clock this afternoon at the Monterey City Council Chambers.

If the local General Plan is the “Constitution for land use” in the community, and that’s a pretty accurate phrase, developed by the courts, incidentally, it’s hard to know exactly how to characterize actions by the Zoning Administrator. Decisions at this level of the planning process are usually “teensy-weensy” little decisions, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not important decisions. They are important, generally, to a very small number of people, and property owners, who might be directly impacted by a particular building or construction project.

This afternoon, as an example, the Zoning Administrator will decide whether a property owner at 17 Toda Vista Drive will be allowed to build a structure located four feet, seven inches from his property line, when the standard setback in that area is six feet. So, there is a full public hearing on the day before Thanksgiving to consider whether it’s ok to build something eighteen inches closer to the property line than the Code says is permissible. This is called a “variance” proceeding, and demonstrates that our local governments not only set high level policies, but “referee” the impact of these policies, as between neighbors. If you were the neighbor, isn’t that something you’d be thankful for?

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

City of Monterey Website
http://www.monterey.org/

City of Monterey Zoning Administrator Agenda
http://www.monterey.org/boards/zoning/
agendas/2005/1123zaagenda1.pdf

On Thanksgiving, we usually focus on the prosperity and abundance that our nation has enjoyed; or more accurately, we celebrate the abundance that many persons in our nation have enjoyed. In fact, our society has not truly shared its abundance as broadly and fairly as we might. We could do a lot better. This is probably a good day to remember that.

The Thanksgiving thought I’d like to share with you, though, harkens back to that variance hearing I mentioned on yesterday’s Land Use Report, and to the citizen initiative I mentioned on Tuesday.

Thanksgiving is a particularly American holiday, and the United States has had, at least historically, something unique and precious that we need to celebrate along with the appreciation of economic abundance. Caught up in the exhilaration of our individual liberties (also a precious possession), we sometimes forget that democratic self-government, a government that is “for” the people because it is “of” and “by” the people, has been our greatest accomplishment. Involvement in the land use decision making process is a constant education in what self-government is all about, and what it can do. I’m thankful for the opportunity we have, if we’re willing to work at it, to establish land use standards and guidelines that will shape our future, that can protect our spectacular natural environment, strengthen our local economies, and (yes) help achieve our social equity goals.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

The land use regulations we adopt through our processes of democratic self?]government will directly affect the character, location, amount, and timing of future growth, and will determine the fate not only of the natural environment, but of our local economies as well. Furthermore, while land use decisions cannot themselves solve the social equity problems that confront us, they can profoundly affect our ability to achieve our social equity goals.

Since land use decisions are most typically made at the local level, getting involved in land use policy is easy, too, at least relatively speaking. To pass a bill in the State Legislature, or in the Congress, you need to gather hundreds of votes. You only need three votes on a Board of Supervisors, and you can usually see what your elected officials are doing, if you pay attention. Self-government only works, of course, if do we get involved ourselves, but if we do (even if it ultimately takes the full use of the initiative, referendum, and recall powers) the public can get what it wants. Communities on the Central Coast know this from personal experience. The “coast” has always been politically engaged and active. I’m happy to report, though, that I attended a meeting in Amador County last week, in which almost a hundred citizens came out to learn about how to make General Plan policies work for them. Democratic participation in land use decision making is spreading from the Sierras to the sea!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.