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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of February 6, 2006 to February 10, 2006
Week of February 6, 2006 to February 10, 2006
KUSP provided a brief Land Use Report on KUSP Radio from January 2003 to May 2016. Archives of past transcripts are available here.
Week of February 6, 2006 to February 10, 2006
- Monday, February 6, 2006
Desal and Housing
- Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Items Before The Santa Cruz County Board
- Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Mixed Uses
- Thursday, February 9, 2006
State Level Land Use Policy – SB 832
- Friday, February 10, 2006
SB 832 and CEQA
The following Land Use Reports have been presented on KUSP Radio by Gary A. Patton. The Wittwer & Parkin law firm is located in Santa Cruz, California, and practices environmental and governmental law. As part of its practice, the law firm files litigation and takes other action on behalf of its clients, which are typically private individuals, governmental agencies, environmental organizations, or community groups. Whenever the Land Use Report comments on an issue with which the Wittwer & Parkin law firm is involved on behalf of a client, Mr. Patton will make this relationship clear, as part of his commentary. Mr. Patton’s comments do not represent the views of Wittwer & Parkin, LLP, KUSP Radio, nor of any of its sponsors.
| Monday, February 6, 2006 Desal and Housing |
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I have a couple of items to highlight today. First, let me invite you to lunch. If you are going to be in the Salinas area, you might want to stop into the meeting of the League of Women Voters of the Salinas Valley. The speaker will be Monterey architect Dennis Hodgin, who will talk about "Housing: What, When, How, Where, Who, and Why?" If you have any uncertainty about any of those questions check out this lunch. Then there's a meeting this morning, at which the North County Coastal Land Use Advisory Committee will consider a pilot or demonstration project desalination plant in Moss Landing. This meeting starts at 9:00 o'clock, at the Full Gospel Church of Las Lomas, at 29 Willow Road. The proposed pilot project would be to try to "prove the concept" that a much larger scale desalination plant in Moss Landing would be a workable way to address the future water needs not only of North Monterey County, but of the Monterey Peninsula. You will be hearing more about this in the future. There is a direct relationship between land use and water supply, and a fundamental question for Monterey County is whether public water agencies (or private water companies) should be given the green light to start using the ocean to meet the water needs of current and future residents. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, February 7, 2006 Items Before The Santa Cruz County Board |
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The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will meet today at the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center. If you have the day available, and want to get a "short course" in important land use issues, you could do a lot worse than taking in this Board meeting. Let me go over just a few of the land use items that will be on the agenda today. The meeting, incidentally, starts at 9:00 a.m., with a major item scheduled for discussion at 1:30 this afternoon. This morning, the Board will first discuss locating child care homes on agricultural lands, something that the Agricultural Policy Advisory Commission thinks is a bad idea. The County may do it anyway, based on what I read in the staff report. It seems to me that this item is really an effort to develop a policy to justify a specific project, but I could be wrong. The Board will also consider some General Plan and ordinance revisions to bring local rules into conformance with state regulations, with respect to what are called "density bonuses" for some affordable housing developments, and to set permanent rules about the conversion of non-residential lands to residential uses. The bottom line there is that such conversions must produce lots of truly affordable housing. Finally, at 1:30, the Board is going to consider the Home Depot proposal, which will have major traffic impacts on 41st Avenue. The City of Capitola is trying to stop the project, citing those traffic concerns. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, February 8, 2006 Mixed Uses |
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A couple of weeks ago, the Arroyo Grande City Council reviewed a Planning Commission decision to turn down two second?]floor apartments in an existing two-story office building. The item will come back on March 14th, and the Council will undoubtedly consider very site-specific issues when it does. As a matter of land use policy, the question is whether communities should be encouraging the development of what are often called "mixed use" projects. Mixing commercial and residential uses used to be norm, and it's definitely still the norm in much of Europe. In Spain, or France, or Italy the street level stores and shops often have living quarters above them. Shopkeepers and their families often work quite close to home! Lawyers, doctors, and dentists do the same. As I say, this used to be a common pattern in American cities, and in dense urban areas, like San Francisco and New York City, there is still a lot of such mixed use development. Starting around the 1920's in the United States, the norm became a pattern of "separating uses," putting all the residential uses together, all the commercial uses together, and all the industrial uses together. Among other things, particularly as the government began spending billions of dollars on major highway projects, the current pattern of sprawling suburban developments emerged and became typical. Can we go back to the future? Many land use planners think that's "smart growth." For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, February 9, 2006 State Level Land Use Policy – SB 832 |
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I am in Sacramento on the weekdays, in my capacity as the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League. PCL is a forty-year old nonprofit organization that works on environmental policy in the State Capitol. As the name implies, "Planning" issues are often right at the top of what PCL is working on. Currently pending in the State Legislature is Senate Bill 832, authored by Senator Don Perata. Senator Perata is not only a member of the State Senate, he's the President Pro Tem, which means that when he authors a bill, it's wise to pay attention. In fact, Senator Perata has also authored Senate Bill 1024, an infrastructure bond proposal that recently passed from the Assembly back to the Senate, but with no specific dollar amounts included. Senate Bill 1024 will likely be a "vehicle," as Capitol lobbyists say, for whatever infrastructure bond spending the Governor and the Legislature ultimately decide upon. In its current form, SB 1024, the bond legislation, references SB 832. Senate Bill 832 is all about "urban infill," a concept that brings joy to the hearts of those who want to promote "smart growth." Probably, SB 832 will be amended to incorporate an even more ambitious program of state planning reform. Tune in tomorrow to find out more about SB 832, "infill," and state planning policy. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, February 10, 2006 SB 832 and CEQA |
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Senate Bill 832 attempts to stimulate "urban infill" projects. Urban infill is generally seen as a good thing, in terms of planning policy. The kind of "mixed use" developments I discussed on Wednesday are usually possible only in the "urban infill" context. Mixing residential and commercial uses in a big shopping center, located at a freeway offramp, doesn't really achieve the purpose. Putting residential and commercial uses together in a city center does. How does Senate Bill 832 attempt to promote "urban infill?" Well, there is the rub! In its current form, the bill would promote urban infill not "directly," really, but by eliminating any CEQA review for certain urban infill projects. CEQA, you'll recall, stands for the "California Environmental Quality Act," and this is California's premier environmental law. It is also a law that empowers individuals and community organizations. CEQA requires the government to respond, substantively and seriously, to community concerns raised in the CEQA process. When the CEQA process goes away, the ability of community organizations to impact planning decisions is diminished. I've put a reference to PCL's most recent publication on CEQA in the transcript for today's Land Use Report. "Everyday Heroes," as it's titled, is a great introduction to what CEQA means for all of us. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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