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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of March 5, 2007 to March 9, 2007
Week of March 5, 2007 to March 9, 2007
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 March 5, 2007 to March 9, 2007
- Monday, March 5, 2007
The Monterey County Ballot Measure Mess
- Tuesday, March 6, 2007
More on Mobilehome Park Conversions
- Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Downtown Salinas Redevelopment
- Thursday, March 8, 2007
Sprawl Development – And A “Heads Up”
- Friday, March 9, 2007
FORA And Prevailing Wages
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, March 5, 2007 The Monterey County Ballot Measure Mess |
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In Monterey County, three different ballot items are scheduled for a vote in June:
The first two measures were placed on the ballot by citizen action. The so-called “repeal” item was placed on the ballot by the Board itself. If the Board wanted to reduce, instead of increase voter confusion, it should remove the third item. Then, a “Yes” vote for the citizen plan approves it, and a “No” vote turns it down. Same for the Board’s “GPU4” plan. That’s a head-to-head contest that lets the voters’ decide. The third ballot measure, which turns a “Yes” vote into a “No” vote and a “No” vote into a vote to approve the Board’s “GPU4” plan, truly complicates the situation. Cynics are likely to say that this is just what the Board of Supervisors has in mind. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, March 6, 2007 More on Mobilehome Park Conversions |
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Last week, I talked about an effort by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to protect mobilehome residents from predatory pricing practices associated with “sham” mobilehome park conversions. The Board is taking up that issue again today, and more information is available on the KUSP website. The County Counsel’s office has prepared an extensive and very readable report that completely outlines the legal issues involved. Today, the Board will consider adopting an emergency ordinance that will impose a 45-day moratorium on certain mobilehome park conversions, to allow the Board time to address the problems that Supervisor Jan Beautz drew to the Board’s attention last week. An emergency ordinance needs four votes, not just three votes, to pass, but my bet is that there’s going to be a unanimous vote in favor of the moratorium, because of the serious issues involved. At present, there are 49 mobilehome parks in Santa Cruz County subject to rent regulation, and these 49 parks contain some 2,314 regulated mobilehome spaces, which means that the parks are an important component of the County’s stock of affordable housing. “Sham” conversions of these mobilehome parks to “resident ownership” (which a fairly recent court decision seems to make more likely) could result in dramatically escalating rents for all these mobilehome owners. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, March 7, 2007 Downtown Salinas Redevelopment |
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The “Chinatown” area in downtown is the focus of some important and exciting discussion. Since March 2005, the City’s Redevelopment Agency has been working with a 24-member Salinas Downtown Community Board, developing a new vision for the future of “Chinatown.” In January, the Salinas City Council officially endorsed that vision, and now there’s an opportunity for the general public to get involved in helping to implement it. Tomorrow, March 8th, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., a kickoff meeting will be held at the Buddhist Temple of Salinas, located at 14 California Street. The meeting will begin a focused and community-based planning effort to design an innovative and responsible multi-use neighborhood. This planning “Charrette,” as it’s called, which allows members of the public to be directly involved, will be continued on Saturday, March 10th, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., again at the Buddhist Temple. The Saturday Charrette will be followed by a closing workshop and presentation on Tuesday, March13th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. “Chinatown” is where “Kate’s Brothel” was located in John Steinbeck’s book, East of Eden. According to the Redevelopment Agency, it’s currently the most blighted area in Salinas, but there are big dreams for its future. If you’d like more information on how to get involved, click on the links below. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, March 8, 2007 Sprawl Development – And A “Heads Up” |
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Here’s a “heads up” for San Benito County residents, and anyone interested in the future of the Silicon Valley – Salinas Valley corridor along Highway 101. A major development, called El Rancho San Benito, is being proposed along Highway 25. There is information on the KUSP website, and now is the time to get involved. Typically, residential growth and development spins out from fast-growing existing urban centers (and particularly places where there is dynamic job growth) along major highway routes. A commonly accepted name for this common pattern of land use is “sprawl.” While sprawling patterns of development can benefit landowners and residential developers, who turn relatively low-priced agricultural and open space land into very high-priced urban land, sprawl often imposes very severe public costs on the rest of us. Sprawl uses land inefficiently, requires more public infrastructure than compact growth does, and usually has horrible, though often unrecognized, public health and social impacts. Longer commutes mean more air pollution, and that means more asthma. And when both parents in a family are commuting between two to four hours per day, the family unit tends to weaken, and the results, from divorce, to gang violence, to lowered educational achievements by the kids left behind, can be pretty significant. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, March 9, 2007 FORA And Prevailing Wages |
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The Board of Directors of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority is meeting today, and will be discussing an issue of great importance to the working men and women of the Monterey County Bay Area; namely, whether or not “prevailing wages” will be paid to construction workers on the big development projects that will take place on Fort Ord. The construction unions that have generally supported proposed development projects because of the jobs they saw coming are now sometimes finding themselves in conflict with the very same developers they supported. According to a recent news report, the Monterey-Santa Cruz County Building and Construction Trades Council and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 234 have filed a lawsuit against Marina Community Partners, the developer of the biggest single project approved for development on the former Army base. According to the lawsuit, the developer is attempting to sidestep wage conditions they promised at the outset. The Fort Ord Reuse Authority, supposedly representing the public, is being asked to get into the mix to stand up for the workers. It appears they’re reluctant to do so, but public participation sometimes has a salutary effect. If you care about the “prevailing wage” issue, and would like to add some public presence at a public agency meeting where the public isn’t actually there very much, you should show up at the FORA meeting today, at 3:30 this afternoon. There is more information below. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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