Tomorrow, from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m., the Monterey City Council will be meeting at the City Hall in Monterey. I’ve put links below to provide information about the Council’s agenda. I hope you’ll send me an email, to give me your comments and suggestions, if you do visit the site.

I’d particularly like to highlight Agenda Item #3, which will be a public hearing. The Monterey City Planning Commission has recommended the adoption of a “Green Building” program for the City of Monterey. Tomorrow, the City Council will hear from the public, and then decide what to do. Staff report materials are available online, and they’re well worth reading.

To meet the global warming challenge, we need significantly to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we emit (even as population growth and economic development proceeds). This means we need to start being much more “efficient” in the way we use energy. That’s a major part of what a “Green Building” program will require. The City Manager thinks some of the Planning Commission recommendations are too ambitious. He’d like to see the so-called LEED “Silver” standard be a “goal” not a requirement. Silver is emphatically not the “highest” green building rating, and if you’re a Monterey City resident, you should think about attending tomorrow’s meeting yourself, to give the Council the benefit of your thoughts.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey City Government Website
http://www.monterey.org/cityhall.html

City Council Agendas
http://www.monterey.org/ccncl/agendas/
agenda.html#2008Agendas

AB 32 is called the “Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.” It mandates a “roll back” of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Since AB 32 does not contain any commitment to slow down either population growth or the growth of the California economy, it’s clear that very extensive changes in how we conduct our lives and businesses will be needed.

AB 32 became effective on January 1, 2007, and is very much in the spirit of a “New Year’s Resolution.” It will only be effective to the extent that we actually make changes necessary to accomplish what we have resolved to do.

What, specifically, will those changes be? We don’t know, yet, but the changes will ultimately be directed by actions taken by the California State Air Resources Board, which has been given the responsibility, under AB 32, of developing and implementing a program to accomplish the greenhouse gas reductions called for. The first step for the ARB, as mandated in AB 32, is to develop a “Scoping Plan.” A draft of that plan is now available, and comments are in order. Perhaps not surprisingly, the ARB has not demanded very much by way of changes to land use and transportation policy. If you’d like to get involved in the most important policy debate affecting land use in this generation, check out the information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

The ARB Scoping Plan is available on the ARB website -
http://www.arb.ca.gov/

AB 32, The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_32&sess=PREV&house=B&author=nunez

A special meeting of the Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, will be held tomorrow. The meeting is to consider the future of Carmel Valley, but don’t leap to the conclusion that the meeting will be held in Carmel Valley. Not a chance! The meeting will begin at 3:00 p.m. at the County Government Building in Salinas. If you are a Carmel Valley resident, and want to be involved in this very important meeting, you should make your travel plans now.

LAFCO decides whether or not annexations to existing cities should be approved, and it decides whether or not new cities should be created. In this case, the question is whether Carmel Valley should be separately incorporated, which would mean its own, locally elected City Council. Currently, the Board of Supervisors, based in Salinas, decides upon land use and other matters affecting Carmel Valley. No member of the Board actually resides in Carmel Valley, and only one member of the Board, Supervisor Dave Potter, who represents the 5th Supervisorial District, which includes Carmel Valley, has shown much sensitivity to the land use concerns of Carmel Valley residents.

A court has held that an earlier decision by LAFCO to demand an Environmental Impact Report, prior to considering a citizen petition for the incorporation of Carmel Valley, was not legally proper. The next steps in the incorporation process will begin (in Salinas) tomorrow.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey County LAFCO Website
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/lafco/

Monterey County Herald article on July 3, 2008 LAFCO meeting
http://www.montereyherald.com/search/
ci_9681403?IADID=Search-www.monterey
herald.com-www.montereyherald.com

The California Coastal Commission is, arguably, California’s premier land use policy agency. State law requires city and county governments to carry out an extensive set of planning responsibilities, but leaves the “substance” of the policy decisions up to local decision makers. Thus, every city and county government must have a “Conservation Element” in its General Plan, but the state law doesn’t actually require local governments to “conserve” anything in particular.

The effect of this radical delegation of land use policy to the local level is a great deal of disparity as between local governments. Santa Cruz County, for instance, has a set of very stringent land use policies to protect farmland and natural resources. Monterey County is a lot more “liberal,” in the sense that where there is a choice between conservation and development, Monterey County policies will usually allow development, where Santa Cruz County policies often won’t.

To return to the Coastal Commission, this is an agency that does follow very specific policy directions contained in state law. The Coastal Act, which applies only in a defined “coastal zone,” does not allow “local” decisions that might damage coastal resources.

About once a year, the Coastal Commission meets in the Central Coast region. Next week, the Commission will be meeting in San Luis Obispo, and I encourage KUSP listeners to see this state agency in action. There is more information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Coastal Commission Home Page
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/index.html

Coastal Commission Agenda
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html

Coastal Commission Laws and Regulations
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ccatc.html

See the Coastal Commission’s live webcast
http://www.cal-span.org/Broadcast/CCC.asx

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. That’s because it’s a holiday set aside to celebrate self-government! I can survive the holiday this year with no fireworks (though I do love fireworks), because reading the Declaration of Independence, which doesn’t produce an immediate fire danger, has an equally uplifting effect, at least for me.

Here are the Declaration’s most quoted lines: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [persons] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

For me, the very best part comes next. The following lines are usually not quoted, but they tell us how the Founders of our American democracy believed that we could actually achieve and defend “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Here are the lines that follow: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted … deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are secured not individually, but by “Governments.” Specifically, by “self-government,” which derives its just power from the consent of the governed. And how is “consent” obtained? In fact, we “consent” to the rules, regulations, and laws that govern us only when we participate in the process that produces them. It is the process of self-government that secures our freedoms, and that we celebrate today.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Declaration of Independence
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/
document/index.htm