The Capitola City Council has indicated its interest in purchasing the “Golino property,” located along Soquel Creek, for possible use as a park facility. It appears that the City actually made an offer to the Golino family, and that the family rejected the offer as too low. Local residents who have been following the matter have convinced the City Council to hold a public hearing this evening, to see if local residents would like the City to continue to pursue the purchase, despite the feeling of current City officials that the asking price is simply too high.

It’s difficult to carry out negotiations on behalf of the public when those negotiations are carried out in full public view. The Brown Act does allow City Council members to go into “closed sessions,” to instruct their negotiators on potential property purchases, with the idea that this will protect the public interest in getting a better price. On the other hand, how will elected officials know what their constituents really think, without the opportunity for public comment? The “value” of a property, ultimately, is the price agreed to by a willing seller and a willing buyer, and if the people of the City are the potential buyer, it’s highly relevant to know what they think. The meeting tonight is an important one.

If you’d like to get more information, you can find some useful links at the bottom of the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. The hearing begins at 5:30 this evening in the Capitola City Council Chambers.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Capitola City Website
http://www.ci.capitola.ca.us/

Agenda Packet for February 5th Special Meeting
http://www.ci.capitola.ca.us/
capcity.nsf/CtyCnclAgendas.html

Article from Mid-County Post
http://www.mcpost.com/article.php?id=611

Santa Cruz Sentinel article (February 2, 2007)
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/
2007/February/02/local/stories/10local.htm

Santa Cruz Sentinel article (January 30, 2007)
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/
2007/January/30/local/stories/08local.htm

To contact activists supporting the purchase:

• Dennis Norton at 831-476-2616 or 831-818-0335
• Amie Forest at 831-331-3218

A Transportation Funding Task Force has been working on issues related to transportation funding, and tonight, at the Watsonville Senior Center, they will present their draft recommendations. One of the plans, which includes Highway One widening, would cost $1.3 billion dollars. More information, including a link to the draft report, and the date of follow up meetings, if found on the KUSP website.

The Transportation Funding Task Force is comprised of over 90 members representing business, neighborhood, environmental, health and community based organizations. Beginning in September of 2005, the Task Force held a number of public workshops and identified transportation problems that the Task Force believes need immediate attention. These include Highway One improvements, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, increased levels of road maintenance and repair on local streets and roads, viable alternatives to some trips that are currently taken by individuals traveling alone in their car, and targeted improvements to the existing bus transit system.

The Draft Plan outlines three different alternatives for addressing the identified transportation problems, and it’s now time for the public to weigh in on these specific proposals. I encourage KUSP listeners to get involved now.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Transportation Funding Task Force Website
http://www.tftaskforce.org/

Draft Transportation Funding Improvement Plan
http://www.tftaskforce.org/plan

Additional meetings will be held as follows:

• February 15th at Mission Hill Middle School in Santa Cruz
• March 1st at the Scotts Valley Senior Center
• March 6th at the Mid-County Senior Center in Capitola
• March 13th at Temple Beth El in Aptos.

This morning, at 9:30, the Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, will be holding a meeting at the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center. If you have some time available, and an interest in land use policy, this would be a good meeting to put on your schedule. You’ve got an hour or so to get there!

Actually, the business before the Commission this morning is not of overwhelming importance, but as a “get acquainted” opportunity, this might be a particularly good meeting to attend, since the Commission will be welcoming a number of new members and alternates. Supervisor Ellen Pirie will be taking a seat on LAFCO on behalf of the County of Santa Cruz, and Supervisor Neal Coonerty will be attending his first LAFCO meeting as a County Alternate. Bob Begun, from the City of Capitola will be taking his seat as a City Member, and Cliff Barrett, from Scotts Valley, will be taking his seat as City Alternate.

LAFCO includes two representatives from the County of Santa Cruz, two representatives from the cities within Santa Cruz County, two representatives of Special Districts located in Santa Cruz County, and a public member. The County, the cities, and the special districts also get to appoint one alternate each, and there is an alternate public member, as well.

LAFCO plays a vitally important role in determining the shape and character of future development. If you’re not acquainted already, think about taking in the meeting this morning.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

The Santa Cruz County LAFCO Website
http://www.santacruzlafco.org/

With the announcement last week that citizen activists turned in enough signatures to force a referendum vote on the so-called GPU4 General Plan, as adopted by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, two things have become obvious. First, that the voters of Monterey County will have the opportunity to vote on the key land use policies that will shape the future of Monterey County. Second, that the upcoming election will probably be an incredibly confusing one.

The complexities are not yet through “complexifying,” I feel certain, since the County will soon be back in Federal Court, along with the citizen activist groups, trying to sort through how the various lawsuits still pending will relate to the upcoming election. There are, at least potentially, a number of items headed for the ballot:

1. A referendum on the Board’s approval of the Rancho San Juan development.
2. A vote on the Community General Plan initiative, qualified by citizen action.
3. A referendum vote on GPU4, as qualified by citizen action.
4. An advisory election on GPU4, put on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors.

And I may have missed something!

Some voices in the community have said that these issues are not ones that the voters should tackle, and that they should just let the Board, presumably better informed, make the key decisions. I think it’s clear that Monterey County voters do want to have their say. That’s certainly consistent with our democratic idea about who is ultimately in charge of the government. It’s the people!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

A land use related tragedy has occurred in Carmel Valley. Two Carmel Valley residents have been killed, allegedly by a next-door neighbor, and apparently because of an ongoing dispute over land use and property issues. There is more information on the KUSP website.

These events might properly lead us to review some of the philosophical concerns that were so important to our nation’s Founding Fathers. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes, in his book Leviathan, argued that the “state of nature” into which human beings are first introduced is a condition in which the most powerful prevail over the less powerful as a consequence of their power, and by unrestrained violence, and that this condition can only be eliminated by the establishment of a “social contract,” enforced on behalf of all individuals by a greater governmental authority. Thomas Locke elaborated this idea, and this thinking played a central role in the creation of our system of government.

In very practical terms, if people attempt to resolve disputes about land use and property themselves, by direct action, Hobbes isn’t far off in saying that violence and murder will be a likely consequence. What we need is a vigorous set of land use laws, established by the government on our behalf, and then the enforcement of those laws, so they can be relied on by us all. An effective system of code enforcement may be a matter of life and death!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey Herald Articles

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/
montereyherald/news/local/16594951.htm

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/
montereyherald/news/local/16614685.htm

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/
montereyherald/news/local/16594950.htm

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/
montereyherald/news/local/16614683.htm

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/
montereyherald/16620771.htm

Wikipedia entry for Thomas Hobbes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes

Wikipedia entry for John Locke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

The archives of past Land Use Reports contain a number of commentaries focusing on inadequate code enforcement efforts generally, and in Monterey County in particular.