Land use policies have an incredibly important impact on our local economy, on the social justice issues we care about, and on the natural environment. People sometimes talk about the "three E's" of land use policy: economy, environment, and equity. Good land use policies are those that realize our aspirations in all three of these areas, simultaneously. We ought always to be striving to achieve our economic, environmental, and social equity goals together, without sacrificing one concern for another.

For the next week or so, it's my plan to use the Land Use Report to provide a brief synopsis of "what we need to know" to be effective in the land use policy arena. Whatever your personal position might be on key economic, environmental, and social equity issues, our representative democracy functions best when ordinary people get personally involved in helping to make the decisions that can so profoundly affect our lives.

I served as a County Supervisor in Santa Cruz County for twenty years, from 1975 to 1995. I headed up LandWatch Monterey County, for about eight years, and I've acted as both the General Counsel and Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide environmental group. I've had a lot of opportunity to see how important our personal involvement in the land use decision-making process can be, and I hope this brief series will help stimulate your own involvement.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

The first thing we need to know to be effective in the land use decision-making process is that land use decisions are "collective" or "community" decisions. That is to say, they are "governmental" decisions. Americans put a high priority on "individualism" and on "individual freedom," and it's fair to say that many of us are a bit put off by both "politics" and "government."

To be an effective part of the land use decision-making process, we need to set aside our own doubts and frustrations about politics and government, at least to the extent that we're willing to get personally involved in the governmental and political processes that will result in the land use decisions that so significantly impact our future. I know that this seems to be an obvious statement, but I'm convinced that an often subconscious (and sometimes conscious) disinclination to get involved in "politics" often leads us simply to "stay home," and "let somebody else do it."

My "unhidden agenda" on the Land Use Report has always been to stimulate personal involvement in land use decision-making. I can personally testify that it's actually "fun" to get involved in politics and government. Hannah Arendt, a great political theorist, says that this "fun" aspect of politics is actually the "happiness" that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were talking about when they said that all people were entitled to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

See Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, Chapter 3, "The Pursuit of Happiness"

Here's a second thing" we need to know if we want to impact land use decisions: the legal and constitutional power that governments have to control land use is "plenary." That means that almost "anything goes" in terms of land use.

While that might seem pretty frightening (I just said that government can do almost "anything" by way of its plenary police powers to regulate land use), this fact is actually a very hopeful thing. It means that the future is open, not shut. If the community goes through the right procedures, the community can make almost any land use policy decision it wants to. We don't have to let things "just happen" to us.

The Constitution does limit the police powers of government. Government cannot "take" a person's private property without paying for it. However, "taking" a person's property means depriving that person of essentially all economic uses of the property. The community can't "take," but it doesn't have to "give." The fact that a landowner could make a lot of money converting farmland to a subdivision doesn't mean that the community has to agree. The community (if it uses what is called "due process" to do so) can decide what land uses the community thinks are best.

One of the "fun" aspects of land use decision-making is that the future is very much open to whatever decisions the community decides to make about land use. To be effective, you need to know, and to have internalized, this fundamental fact.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

We need to know that land use decisions are "community," or "governmental" decisions, and we need to know that government has extremely broad land use powers, so that our community options are wide, not narrow. Do we want to develop farmland with superstores and subdivisions? We can. Do we want to save farmland? We can do that. The choice is really ours, as a community. There are limitations, but it's the limitations that are limited, not our basic land use powers.

The "third thing" to know, to be effective in the land use policy arena, is that you need to "get organized." If you only act individually, and not as part of an organized group, your effectiveness will be substantially diminished. Because land use decisions are "community" decisions, the decision-making process responds best to organized community efforts. If you don't like a particular land use proposal in your neighborhood, or if you'd like to have a new community policy adopted (perhaps a requirement for more affordable housing), you can go to meetings and testify individually, and write individual letters, and comment on environmental documents. But the best thing to do is to join or start a group, and to build the community support that will ultimately affect the community land use decision-making process.

Again, this seems obvious, but I'm convinced that many of us have never had the experience of working in a group that is trying to affect community land use policy. That, too, is a lot of "fun." And it's the way to be effective.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

To be most effective in the land use decision-making process, we need to operate as part of a community group working on the issue or issues we care about. That means we need to know how best to connect up with or start such a group. How would you do that? There isn't any simple answer, of course. It depends on what community you live in, and what land use related issue or issues you care about.

If you support land use policies to promote more growth and development, it usually makes sense to check in with your local Chamber of Commerce, and maybe even with the local Association of Realtors. Existing groups with a stake in land use decision-making are often already geared up. On the environmental side, the Ventana Chapter of the Sierra Club is active in both Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties; the Sierra Club also has a San Luis Obispo County Chapter. LandWatch Monterey County, and LandWatch San Luis Obispo County are both dedicated to citizen involvement in local land use policy issues. Common Ground Monterey County, on the pro-development side, augments the efforts of the Association of Realtors and the Chambers of Commerce.

I've put links to these groups in the transcript of today's Land Use Report, and you can contact me for more specific suggestions. But don't forget the option of simply starting your own group. The Save Lighthouse Point Association was a community group that came out of an initial meeting organized by a single young person, and that group changed the course of history in the City of Santa Cruz.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey County Association of Realtors
http://www.mcar.com/

Monterey County Chambers of Commerce
http://www.gomonterey.com/visitorsinfo/
chambersofcommercelistings.html

Common Ground Monterey County
http://www.cgmontereycounty.org/

Santa Cruz Association of Realtors
http://www.scaor.org/

Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce
http://www.santacruzchamber.org/

Sierra Club, Ventana Chapter (Monterey and Santa Cruz County)
http://ventana.sierraclub.org/current/index.shtml

Sierra Club San Luis Obispo County
http://santalucia.sierraclub.org/SLOtrail.html

LandWatch Monterey County
http://www.landwatch.org/

LandWatch San Luis Obispo County
http://landwatchsloco.org/