A 14.8-acre site at the junction of Mount Hermon and Graham Hill Roads, in Felton, has been designated in the Santa Cruz County General Plan as an appropriate location for affordable housing. An affordable housing developer, South County Housing, is attempting to develop the site, and the County Redevelopment Agency has been providing financial assistance.

Agenda Item #34 on tomorrow’s Board of Supervisors Agenda contains a recommendation that the Board provide an additional $1.2 million dollars of predevelopment funding, to permit South County Housing to proceed further with their development proposal. Among other things, the funding would let South County Housing pay for a required Environmental Impact Report.

This agenda item illustrates the fact that affordable housing normally requires a “subsidy.” It also points out a major problem that typically confronts all developers. Very significant processing costs are often needed to advance a proposed project, with no guarantee that the project will ultimately be approved. In this case, there are very significant wastewater disposal issues associated with the proposal, and it’s quite possible that the ultimate decision of the Board will be that the project should not be allowed. In the meantime, if Agenda Item #34 is approved, the County will be paying a significant sum just to get to that decision point.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Board of Supervisors Agenda for November 25, 2008
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/
ASP/Display/SCCB_AgendaDisplayWeb.asp?
MeetingDate=11/25/2008
The Staff Report on Agenda Item #34 can be downloaded from the Board’s agenda as a PDF file.

Last week, the Board of Supervisors of San Luis Obispo County gave approval to the Santa Margarita Ranch project. This project would put an estimated 300 people in 111 homes on 1-acre to 1.5-acre lots in what has been called an “agricultural cluster subdivision,” affecting over 3,700 acres of agricultural land.

Calling this project an “agricultural” cluster subdivision is an attempt to make the English language testify against itself. “Subdivisions” are almost always associated with a permanent conversion of the underlying land to a new use. When an “estate lot” subdivision, like this one, is approved on agricultural land, that decision is (no matter what it’s called) a decision to substitute rural residential development for agricultural use.

The decision to approve the Santa Margarita Ranch subdivision will be made final on December 16th, which is likely to be the final meeting for the current, “lame duck” Board of Supervisors. A new Board will take office in January 2009, but they will not automatically have the right to reverse the decision of the current Board. If San Luis Obispo County residents want to stop this proposed project, they might consider a lawsuit, or a referendum, or both. Similar efforts in Monterey County, with respect to the proposed Rancho San Juan project, ultimately proved successful.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

San Luis Obispo Tribune Article
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/532841.html

Readers’ Responses To Board Decision
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/letters-to-the-editor/story/535261.html

I recently saw a news story that kind of broke my heart. It was titled “Austin Developers Planting Homes in Mexican Jungle.”

I happen to have a very soft spot for Mexico, and a really soft spot for the jungle areas that are sometimes called the “lungs of the world.” Maintaining the integrity of the rainforest and jungle lands which still remain is critically important as we confront global warming, and as we hope to preserve at least some of the remaining biodiversity of the planet. Subdividing the jungle for vacation homes isn’t going to help. In this case, the subdivision not only directly attacks the biological integrity of our planet, it also degrades the cultural significance of the Tulum area in the Yucatán, which contains some of the most impressive remains of the amazing Mayan civilization.

The developers proposing this subdivision are claiming it’s an “eco-friendly development.” They tout the fact that the subdivision will be “off the power grid,” and that the homes constructed will follow “environmental safeguards.” What breaks my heart is that some well-intentioned people, who do really care about our environment, might think that having a home in this new subdivision is their way to establish a closer connection with the Earth. In fact, this is the way the world will end, as we consume it utterly, even to the last refuge of the truly wild.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

News Story
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/
stories/world/11/10/1110mexjungle.html

Happy Thanksgiving to Land Use Report listeners! You may be particularly happy that there are no public hearings scheduled today. You’re off the hook! No evening meetings. Not even a reading assignment!

I can tell you what I’m happy about, and thankful for, as I reflect, personally, on my own blessings. I am incredibly grateful for my family, and friends, and the many material good things in my life. I was pretty happy about those November elections, too! But I am also thankful to have been part of a political community that takes itself seriously as a community. Santa Cruz County, where I live, really does have a sense (at least I think so) that we are “in this together,” that the meaning and purpose of life is not completely described by individual achievement, but that we are fulfilled and made whole only when we recognize and realize our essential connection to one another.

For me, this has “made all the difference.” Robert Frost’s poem talks about the forks of a road, diverging in a woods, with both appearing “really about the same.” At the time I got involved in public life, joining with others to try to “Save Lighthouse Field,” I never would have predicted that my choice, to be part of a community that was trying to make the future be what we wanted, rather than simply letting the future happen to us, would make for such a difference both for me, and for the community I’ve been so privileged to be a part of.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

Next Tuesday, December 2nd, the City of Santa Cruz is going to be holding a Community Workshop focusing on the River Street, Front Street, and Lower Pacific Avenue areas. The workshop will take place at the Louden Nelson Community Center, beginning at 6:00 p.m. You are most cordially invited.

As listeners from Santa Cruz probably know, the City is moving forward with a proposed General Plan revision. The future of the agricultural areas adjacent to Pogonip will be decided as part of that General Plan revision process. The character of the River Street, Front Street, and Lower Pacific Avenue areas will also be decided as final General Plan policies are adopted. In this case, though, there is a whole special study underway, intended to provide detailed guidance for the future development of this downtown expansion area.

Consultants working for the City are going to propose specific alternatives for discussion. Community input, provided at the workshop, will then be used to select and shape these alternatives to develop a “Preferred Concept.” This preferred concept will be linked to very specific design guidelines and development incentives which then can be incorporated into the General Plan. In other words, the time to get engaged is now at hand. If you’d like to be part of the planning for the expansion of downtown Santa Cruz along River Street, Front Street, and lower Pacific Avenue, don’t miss the meeting next Tuesday.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

More information is available through the City of Santa Cruz Website
http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/