Last Friday was a deadline day in the State Legislature. Bills not sent for a Floor vote were dead. Two good land use bills have been casualties in this process.

Senate Bill 375 would require transportation plans to include a “preferred growth scenario” that would reduce “vehicle miles traveled” according to specifications provided by the State Air Resources Board. No transportation dollars could be used for any transportation project inconsistent with the preferred growth scenario. Not only do the builders and developers hate this bill, which would cut sprawl, cities and counties don’t like it much either. Senate Bill 375 is “dead” for this year. But you’ll hear about it again in January.

Assembly Bill 224 also did not make it to the Floor by last Friday. It should be “dead,” too, but environmental groups are doing everything they can to revive it, by getting the State Senate to waive the normal rules, and to send AB 224to the Senate Floor. AB 224 has no opposition. It would require water planning documents to consider global warming. If the bill fails, the next round of local water plans, including the 2010 Urban Water Management Plans, the basis for hundreds of local government planning decisions, will not address climate change until 2015.

To find out more, and how you can help, read below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

SB 375 Information
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/
postquery?bill_number=sb_375&sess
=CUR&house=B&author=steinberg

AB 224 Information
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/
postquery?bill_number=ab_224&sess
=CUR&house=B&author=wolk

If you’d like to support AB 224, please make a phone call to Speaker Fabian Núñez [(213) 620-4646] and to Senate President pro Tem Don Perata [(916) 651-4009). You should convey this very simple message: “Please do whatever is necessary to make sure that AB 224, which would require water plans to consider global warming, gets voted on this year, before the Legislature adjourns.” Leaving a message even on a holiday is fine! Immediate action is necessary. The fate of the bill will be decided, probably, right at the end of the Legislative session, so calls during the next week are worthwhile.

Up to the minute information is available from the Legislative Director of the Planning and Conservation League. Contact Tina Andolina at (916) 313-4521.

If you’d like to learn something about one of the most arcane, and little understood, and controversial state requirements relating to affordable housing, I think I have a place I can send you this afternoon. The Monterey City Council will be meeting at the Monterey City Hall this afternoon, starting at 4:00 o’clock, and will be holding a study session on the Regional Housing Needs Allocation Process, affectionately known as the “RHNA process.”

If you’ve heard about the RHNA process (that’s an acronym, by the way: R-H-N-A), you will definitely score high on a land use literacy test. The RHNA process originates in provisions in the State’s Planning and Zoning law, and specifically those provisions that outline how a local agency needs to prepare and update the Housing Element of its General Plan.

The basic concept is simple enough: the State government figures out how much growth it thinks the state will experience in upcoming years; it figures out how to allocate that growth as between the different regions of the state; and then it tells the regional agencies to divide that expected growth among the various cities and counties in the region. How much does Monterey get? How much goes to Soledad? And to Scotts Valley, for that matter? As I mentioned, the RHNA process is controversial, and it’s complex. Find out more below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

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

Monterey City Council Agenda
http://www.monterey.org/ccncl/agendas/2007/070904.pdf

Staff Report on the RHNA Process
http://www.monterey.org/ccncl/packets/2007/070904/1.pdf

Tomorrow evening, Thursday, September 6th, the Ventana Wild Rivers Campaign is going to be presenting an award-winning film in Monterey. The film is called “Source To Sea,” and the showing will take place in the Wave Street Studios at 774 Wave Street. A reception begins at 6:30 p.m. Show time is 7:30. There is a $10 admission charge.

“Source to the Sea” follows Christopher Swain, who became the first person to swim the entire 1,243-mile length of the Columbia River. His swim, which took place in 2003, brought stories about the river’s disrupted ecosystems and dislocated peoples to over twenty thousand North American schoolchildren, and to a worldwide media audience.

A group of Northwest filmmakers followed Swain’s swim. “Source to Sea” was the result. It’s a ninety-minute film that includes stunning preinundation footage of Celilo and Kettle Falls, as well as a broad spectrum of interviews with tribal members, agency representatives, nonprofit leaders, and others who trace the natural history and present day challenges of the Columbia River. One educator described the film this way: “The interviews weren’t just riveting; they made this grown man cry."

Land use and the fate of our rivers are related. You can get more information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Source to Sea
http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/site/Calendar/
2027383277?view=Detail&id=100801&whence=
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friendsoftheriver.org%2Fsite
%2FPageServer%3Fpagename%3DFOR
Calendareventscomponent

New technologies make it possible to develop sophisticated mapping solutions to various environmental and land use problems. Let’s take invasive species as an example.

Invasive species management is a concern in wildlands, on agricultural lands, and in urban landscapes. Some governmental agencies are concerned with invasive plant impacts on native plant communities, while others may be more concerned about their potential as fuel loads for fires. Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems are used for mapping and data management, but methodologies and goals can be quite different, and there is little collaboration between agencies to identify, monitor, and eradicate invasive species within the entire region.

If you’re an agency representative, or are interested in this topic at a fairly technical level, there is a workshop tomorrow you may want to attend. The workshop will serve as the impetus for developing a region-wide invasive species mapping and data management working group.

The workshop is being sponsored by the Central Coast Joint Data Committee, and is scheduled for Friday morning, September 7th, from 8:45 to 11:45 at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Moss Landing. If you’d like more information, please click on the links below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

CCJDC Website
http://www.ccjdc.org/

Workshop Announcement
http://www.ccjdc.org/events/workshops.htm

Flyer
http://www.ccjdc.org/events/workshops/info/
Invasive%20Species%20Workshop%20Flyer.pdf

For more information, contact David Johnston at 831-883-3750, or by email at: djohnston@ambag.org.

I mostly focus these Land Use Reports on issues and activities along the Central Coast, and I mostly discuss such issues and activities on the ocean side of the coast range, where the KUSP studio is located. That said, a considerable number of KUSP listeners do reside or work on the Santa Clara County side of the coast range, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t cover that side of the hill from time to time, as well.

Consistent listeners will remember that I do discuss planning items in San Benito County, and in the City of San Jose, and particularly when they have regional impacts. As I think back, however, I don’t believe that I have ever pointed out the significant number of outdoor activities that are available on the Santa Clara County side of the hill. I like to announce outings sponsored by the Big Sur Land Trust, and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, and by other groups that provide all of us with wonderful opportunities directly to experience the beauty of the Central Coast region. As I think back, though, I believe I have only mentioned such opportunities the coast side. Today, let me correct that!

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has recently published a guide to its current outings, and it lists an incredible number of great outdoor adventures, including a Skyline Ridge hike tomorrow morning. Check out the information below, and then get out in the country. You’ll be amazed what’s there!

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Website
http://www.openspace.org/

Skyline hike on September 8th
http://www.openspace.org/activities/
activity_detail.asp?activity_ID=781

Complete calendar of activities
http://www.openspace.org/activities/default.asp

Outdoor Activities currently scheduled on the coast side:

• Elkhorn Slough Foundation
  http://www.elkhornslough.org/escalendar.htm
  
  
• Sierra Club
  http://ventana.sierraclub.org/schedule/index.shtml