The California State Air Resources Board (or ARB) will soon take action on its draft "Scoping Plan," adopted pursuant to AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. AB 32 commits California to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, which will be difficult. The "easy part," in a way, was setting the Legislative target. The "hard part" is going to be to develop and then implement various regulatory measures to accomplish the needed reductions.

To accomplish the AB 32 reduction goals, the ARB first quantified the baseline greenhouse gas emissions as of 1990. It then adopted a few "early action" measures that could go into effect quickly; and it published a draft "Scoping Plan," in June of this year, outlining measures that the ARB will rely upon to get to the reduction target. Since June, the ARB has been receiving comments on the draft plan, and will adopt a final "Scoping Plan" in November.

One obvious thing would be for the ARB to mandate "smart growth" land use controls throughout California. That isn't the direction that the ARB seems to be choosing. The draft plan says that local governments and regional planning agencies should change land use policies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but there's no requirement.

If you have a comment on that, there is still time to get it in to the ARB.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

The ARB Climate Change Website
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/cc.htm

The ARB Scoping Plan
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/
document/draftscopingplan.htm

The "unhidden agenda" of the Land Use Report is to stimulate your involvement in the land use policy issues that will have such a determinative impact on our future. Public participation can really make a huge difference in the decisions made by our local government agencies, and since most land use policy has been delegated to the local level, your personal involvement can actually change results. In my more elevated moments, I say that our participation in the public policy process can "change the world," and I really know that's true, based on my 30 years or more of personal involvement in land use issues in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

I have often noted that the best way to participate in the public policy process is not as an individual, but as a member of a group, so that individuals aren't left isolated, and unsupported, but can work together to achieve the public policy goals they would like to see realized. In both Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County, there are now "LandWatch" organizations that have been created specifically to help concerned citizens and residents work effectively on the land use issues that concern them most.

Probably, there is not a genuine LandWatch "movement" yet, but I think it's encouraging that residents in San Luis Obispo County are taking a cue from the successes of LandWatch Monterey County. If you want to check out what these groups are doing, see below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

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

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

As far as I know, there isn't any "LandWatch San Benito County," at least not yet, but there is plenty of land use policy action in San Benito County. If you accept the premise that concerned citizens and residents can change the future of their community through their involvement in the land use decision-making process, then you may conclude that it's a good time for folks in San Benito County to get organized and speak out.

San Benito County, just to the south of Santa Clara County, is one of the smaller counties in the state, geographically. And it's right next door to one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic business and economic centers in the world, the "Silicon Valley." If residential growth takes over San Benito County, as it has taken over so many other rural and agricultural areas in California, there will be significant impacts not only on the county's agricultural land base, but on its entire quality of life. The time for San Benito County residents to start getting involved in land use policy has definitely arrived.

There are some major growth-inducing highway projects proposed for San Benito County, but the biggest single land use policy issue confronting San Benito County residents has to be the proposed "new town" of "El Rancho San Benito," promoted by a very large and experienced development company based in Arizona. You can get an idea of what's at stake below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

El Rancho San Benito Official Website
http://elranchosanbenito.com/

El Rancho San Benito "Community Website"
http://elranchosanbenito.us/

Hollister Freelance Article
http://www.freelancenews.com/news/248764-board
-moves-ahead-on-dmbs-environmental-work

Some of the listeners to this Land Use Report are professionally involved in land use policy and natural resource protection issues. The item I'm mentioning today is really aimed at such professionals. It's a 40-hour training course on wetlands delineation, to be held in Moss Landing on November 17th through November 21st. The cost (sit down first) is $1,400. The course is provided by the Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program, and will be taught by well-known wetlands, soils, and ecological restoration experts. If you are interested, you must register in advance. There's more information below.

For non-professional listeners, let me say that this topic of wetlands delineation isn't just of professional interest. Wetland areas have incredible value for their biological productivity, and that means that lots of land use regulations (federal, state, and local) give special status to wetlands, and put special restrictions on activities in or near wetlands areas. In view of these regulations, the question is often posed whether a particular property is a wetland, or not. That's what this course is going to be all about, and in the real world, the scientific answer to the question (wetland or not?) is often the determining factor in what can or cannot be done on a particular parcel of land.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Elkhorn Slough Foundation Website
http://www.elkhornslough.org/

Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve Website
http://www.elkhornslough.org/esnerr.htm

Coastal Training Homepage
http://www.elkhornsloughctp.org/

Wetlands Delineation Training Course
http://www.elkhornsloughctp.org/training/
show_train_detail.php?TRAIN_ID=JuDD9PX

GIS stands for "Geographical Information Systems," and GIS is a powerful tool for good land use planning. What is mainly involved is linking data about various things to the specific piece of land to which that data applies, and then making it easy to retrieve all the data for that parcel.

For instance, if you own property in the mountains in Santa Cruz County, your parcel will probably be within either a fire protection district, or in County Service Area 48. Your land may have steep slopes; or, it might contain wetlands. The soils on your parcel might be highly erodible, or they might be granitic. Your parcel might have timber resources, or be near an earthquake fault. Various endangered species may inhabit the area, and the property will have some sort of General Plan designation. This is just a "partial list" of the characteristics of your property. Until GIS, whatever information was known about your parcel was found in separate places, on different maps, or in various separate written documents. GIS can pull it all together. Check the transcript of today's Land Use Report to see how the Santa Cruz County GIS system works. It's fun!

If you want to know more about GIS, mark your calendar for AMBAG's "GIS Day," which will take place this year on Wednesday, November 19th, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the new Watsonville City Council Chambers.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

The Santa Cruz County GIS System
http://gis.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/

The AMBAG GIS Webpage
http://www.ambag.org/resources/gis.htm