This coming Wednesday and Thursday, CalCoast, the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, and the California Watershed Network will be sponsoring an important meeting in Sacramento. The event will be held at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I Street, right in downtown. The conference is entitled, "The Coast and California's Watersheds: Investing in our Natural Infrastructure." If you visit the website, and click on the Land Use Report link, you can send me an email with your comments and suggestions, as well. I hope you'll do that.

In Sacramento, serious concerns are demonstrated as being serious when money is appropriated to do something about them. It's no different from the family budget. If you are serious about sending the kids to college, you had best set some money aside for the project. If, as a state, we're serious about saving and restoring our natural environment, we need to put our money where our mouth is. At the CalCoast conference, money issues will be right at the top of the agenda. One idea is that auto registration fees in coastal areas might be raised, with the new money going to coastal protection and restoration efforts. The other idea, of course, is to "borrow" more money, through a new state bond issue, and to use that for protecting our natural infrastructure.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Conference Information
http://www.coastalconference.org/sac_2006/index.htm

Conference Registration
http://www.websurfer.us/sac2006/register.htm

Yesterday, I talked about a watershed conference being held this week in Sacramento. Today, I want to extend my personal invitation to you, and to urge you to come to the Planning and Conservation League Environmental Legislative Symposium, to be held on in Sacramento on Saturday, April 29th at the energy-efficient SMUD Building.

SMUD, for you non-Sacramento utility customers, is short for the "Sacramento Municipal Utilities District." SMUD, being democratically controlled (its Directors are elected), was one of the first utilities in the nation voluntarily to decommission and take off line an operating nuclear power plant. The utility has gone on to pioneer energy conservation in a host of ways, and their Customer Service Building, where the PCL Symposium is being held, demonstrates that commitment in an architecturally-striking manner.

The content of the Symposium, even more than the building where it will be held, is what I hope will draw you to Sacramento on Saturday, April 29th.

The PCL Symposium is entitled, "A Change in the Climate." You'll find out about global warming, of course (and how California is leading the way in doing something about it), but also about how we can join together to change the political climate of this state.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Register for the PCL Symposium at www.pcl.org

Transportation and land use go together. Or, they should go together. That's probably a more accurate way to put it. In fact, our post-World War II patterns of sprawl have more or less been caused by the way we've built our highways, with the federal Interstate Highway Act providing the sprawl-inducing model for the land uses we've sprinkled with such abandon over our rural and agricultural landscapes.

Tonight, you can find out about a major transportation project proposed for Santa Cruz County, the merge lanes project slated soon to be constructed at the intersection of Highway One and Highway 17. This is the infamous "fishhook," and the meeting tonight will illuminate the "details" of the merge lanes project. Presumably, that will include some explanation of the proposed project timeline. If when it's all done things are better (and many commuters hope that's true), there are bound to be traffic disruptions and delays during the actual construction period.

If you'd like to find out more about this upcoming project, plan to attend the information open house being held by CALTRANS this evening. The time is from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at the Senior Citizens' Opportunities Center, 222 Market Street in Santa Cruz. This is a drop-in event, so you can come anytime from 5:00 to 8:00!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

CALTRANS project website
www.hwy1-17.caltrans.ca.gov

You can ask for additional information from CALTRANS by email: info-d5@dot.ca.gov

Frequent listeners to this Land Use Report know that I emphasize the legal rights of the community to make up its own rules and regulations governing land use. Starting with their General Plan, and including local zoning ordinances and other land use regulations, local governments in California can use their governmental powers to shape the future of the community. Because the local officials who make most of these land use decisions are elected, and because we have (I hope we still have) access to the initiative, referendum, and recall, informed and active citizens can often make a huge difference in managing future growth and development.

Landowners, developers, and businesses would often prefer not to have to follow community rules and regulations, since such local rules can reduce their potential profits. For instance, if you can't turn your farmlands into a subdivision or a shopping center, your land will be worth less. Wal-Mart, one of the biggest businesses in the United States, has been a relentless opponent of local regulations that might prevent Wal-Mart from continuing in its skip-out shopping center model of development. Recently, a state appeals court ruled that cities can regulate big-box superstores in order to prevent the collapse of local businesses, in a way that might extend urban blight. According to the court, the City of Turlock legally used its power to "control and organize development within its boundaries."

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Copy of Court of Appeals Decision
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/F047372.PDF

There is a local group organizing against Wal-Mart in Marina. You can reach them through Steve Zmak, "Citizens Against Wal-Mart in Marina!" at cawim@earthlink.net, or by telephone at: 831-883-4459.

Yesterday, I briefly discussed an Appeals Court decision that holds that local communities have the right to turn down a big-box store if that store would adversely affect existing businesses in a way that could increase urban blight. As you probably know, this is a common complaint against Wal-Mart stores in particular. You can get a copy of the Appeals Court decision by clicking on the Land Use Report link below.

A Wal-Mart is being proposed for Pajaro, in Monterey County, and would possibly have the same kind of effects in that unincorporated community that the City of Turlock thought that a Wal-Mart store might have there. In the City of Marina (also in Monterey County), Wal-Mart is proposing to take over a vacant K-Mart store, so the story is a little bit different, since the building already exists. The impact of a Wal-Mart on local businesses, though, is likely to be just the same, and could spell some hard times for smaller stores in Marina's downtown district.

In Marina, though, City officials are not looking for a way to stop the proposed Wal-Mart. A memo from the City Attorney, dated March 17, 2006, documents how Marina city staff have done just about everything they can to insulate the proposed Wal-Mart store from any citizen review whatsoever. I've put instructions in today's transcript on how to get a copy of this City Attorney Memo.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Copy of Court of Appeals Decision
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/F047372.PDF

A local group is organizing against Wal-Mart in Marina. You can reach them through Steve Zmak, "Citizens Against Wal-Mart in Marina!" at cawim@earthlink.net, or by telephone at: 831-883-4459.

The City Attorney Memo about Wal-Mart is included in materials associated with Agenda Item 10a, on the City Council's March 21, 2006 agenda. The complete agenda is available online, on the City's website. Click on this link for the Agenda Packet - http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/council/2006/0321.pdf