Let’s try to put "Paso Robles" and "planning" in the same sentence. Tomorrow night, the Paso Robles City Council will be focusing on some key land use planning issues, specifically including how best to update the Housing Element of the Paso Robles General Plan. The Council will also be revisiting a recent discussion of what priority to give various proposed Specific Plans that will have a big impact on the City’s future. The Land Use Report does try to cover important planning issues throughout the Central Coast region, and that definitely includes San Luis Obispo County, and one of its fastest-growing cities, Paso Robles. You can get more information about the City Council meeting tomorrow night by clicking on the Land Use Report icon on the KUSP website.

Closer to the KUSP studios, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will also meet tomorrow, starting at 10:30 in the morning. The Board is going to be taking what they expect to be final action on an amendment to the Monterey County Local Coastal Program Implementation Plan. The change that is contemplated is an amendment to the County Code to eliminate the covered parking requirement for new residential developments in residential zoning districts other than High Density and Medium Density Residential Districts. This means, in layperson language, that you won’t have to build a garage when you build a new house. If you have an opinion on that topic, don’t miss the meeting tomorrow.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

City of Paso Robles Website
http://www.prcity.com/

Agenda, March 3, 2009 City Council Meeting
http://www.prcity.com/government/
citycouncil/agendas.asp

News Story on Paso Robles Planning
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/
local/story/633288.html

If you like to plan ahead, mark your calendar for next Tuesday, March 10th. On that date, the Santa Cruz City Council will be considering a Water Shortage Contingency Plan that could kick into effect as early as next month. The ordinance that the Council will consider spells out how and when your residential and business water supply will be cut back, in the event of a drought. Since the current water year is officially classified as "critically dry," a drought is already with us. The Council received a presentation last week, and is expecting to adopt an emergency ordinance at the upcoming Council meeting. Most likely, the cutback ordinance will be heard during the evening session, which begins at 7:30.

If you live in Salinas, I want to alert you to an important meeting at 7:30 tonight. The Salinas City Council will be discussing a Zoning Code amendment to regulate "Large Scale Combined Retailers," which means, in this case, Wal-Mart. While local governments aren’t allowed to discriminate against specific businesses they don’t like, they are able to set up general regulations that may, as a practical matter, effect only a very small number of businesses, or even just one business. The issue this evening is the future of space acquired by Wal-Mart in the Harden Ranch Shopping Center. If you care about this debate, and it’s an important one, show up at the Salinas City Hall tonight!

More Information

City of Santa Cruz Website
http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/

A copy of the City’s Water Shortage Contingency Plan is available online by navigating to the City Water Department part of the City’s website.

City of Salinas Website
http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/index.cfm

Salinas City Council Agenda
http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/
leadership/leadership.cfm

Monterey County Herald Story on Salinas Agenda Item
http://www.montereyherald.com/search/ci_11807463?
IADID=Search-www.montereyherald.com-
www.montereyherald.com

Local elected officials tend to come in two flavors. One variety sees his or her job as representing the public to the local government agency on which he or she serves. When you find an official like that, how sweet it is!

Other local officials see their job as representing the local government to the public. They frequently tell the public what the agency is doing for them, rather than telling the governmental agency what the public wants the agency to do. Our relationship with officials like that can sour us on local government, particularly if the elected officials involved started out with the "I’m going to represent the public" attitude, and then end up, after serving for awhile, telling the public why the governmental body to which they’ve been elected is so great, and why any public demands for something more, or different, are actually wrong headed.

An elected official desiring to develop the "I’m here to represent the public" approach will have to go out of his or her way to provide the public with information about what the government is doing. I’m happy to report that Monterey County Supervisor Jane Parker appears to be heading in this direction. Sunday afternoon, Supervisor Parker will host a meeting on the County’s financial situation. Most other Sundays, she holds an agenda review meeting, to go over next week’s actions at the Board. There is more information in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report, found on the KUSP website.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Supervisor Parker’s Community Meeting on the County Budget will be held on Sunday, March 8th, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Marina Library Meeting Room. For more information, and to RSVP, please contact Supervisor Parker’s office at 831-883-7570, or email Supervisor Parker at Jane.Parker@co.monterey.ca.us. Supervisor Parker also hosts agenda review meetings from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Sunday evening, at Mountain Mike’s Pizza in Marina, when a Board meeting is scheduled during the next week. Upcoming dates include March 15th, 22nd, and 29th, and April 12th, 19th, and 26th.

During my twenty years on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, I developed "Five Simple Rules" for being a good local elected official. They’re attached here for your information.

FIVE RULES I FOLLOW

After twenty years on the Board of Supervisors, I've decided what it takes to do a good job as an elected official. It all comes down to five simple rules:

Rule #1: "Answer Your Mail." This is just a shorthand way of saying that it's important to listen to the messages that come to you--from whatever source--and then to respond to them, as honestly and as positively as you can. By following this rule, I always have lots of work to do, and the people who contact me really do get to influence the government.

Rule #2: "Remember You're In Charge." There is a bureaucratic momentum present in every institution (certainly including government). An elected official needs to remember that he or she was elected to run the bureaucracy--not the other way around.

Rule #3: "Remember Who Elected You." On many of the big issues, there are at least two responsible and reasonable positions--if not an even greater number. Presumably, if you're an elected official, you were elected because of the positions you took. If you were elected as an environmentalist, be an environmentalist. Do what you said you would do. After all, you got the majority vote. That's why you were elected.

Rule #4: "Go Where You're Invited." In other words, never be afraid to open up a dialogue and discussion with the people who didn't elect you. You might learn something. This is an antidote to Rule #3.

Rule #5: "Be honest." This means more than the minimum requirement of not taking bribes--though of course that is important. What this Rule means is that you've got to tell people what you really think. That lets them decide whether they like your positions, and whether they like you. That puts the people in charge of politics.

In the end, that's what it's supposed to be all about!

Gary A. Patton, Member
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors
November 20, 1994

Next week, you can spend time at the Portola Hotel and Spa at Monterey Bay and satisfy your public policy cravings at the same time. Once a year, the Coastal Commission meets in the Central Coast Region, which includes Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo Counties. This year, the Commission will be meeting in Monterey, from Wednesday, March 11th through Friday, March 13th. A link to the Commission’s website can be found in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. I would like to encourage local residents who care about land use to attend this upcoming meeting, to see California’s most successful land use planning and regulatory agency in action. Of course, you can also see the Commission in action by way of a live webcast, so you don’t actually have to go to Monterey, to attend the meeting in person.

I do think it’s fair to call the Coastal Commission the state’s most successful land use planning and regulatory agency. As regular listeners know, most land use policy and planning decisions are made at the local government level. Some cities and counties do a great job; others not so great, if you have a bias in favor of planning policies that simultaneously achieve economic, environmental, and social justice goals. In the Coastal Zone, it’s not a matter of "maybe." The Coastal Act has strong policies that balance these "three E’s" of good planning, and the Commission usually makes sure that local governments properly achieve them.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Coastal Commission Website
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/

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

Speaking of the Coastal Commission (I was speaking about it yesterday), it can only do a good job protecting coastal resources if the Commissioners who make up the Commission actually follow the commandments of the Coastal Act. Coastal Act policies, which apply only within the Coastal Zone, do a terrific job of balancing economic, environmental, and social justice considerations. The Commission’s most important job is to make sure that local governments in fact adhere to what the state Coastal Act demands, with respect to the land use decisions that local governments make within the Coastal Zone.

Because the Commission can overturn local government decisions, local governments demanded lots of representation on the Commission, and they got it. Six members of the Commission, one from each region of the state, have to be either a City Council Member or a Member of a Board of Supervisors. In the Central Coast Region, Monterey County Supervisor Dave Potter is currently serving as the local government representative. His term will shortly end, however, and the Speaker of the Assembly will have to decide whether to reappoint him, or make a new appointment. The appointment process is somewhat complicated, and I’ve put references to how it works in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. Supervisor Potter has a voting record that is the second worst on the Commission, as measured by a consortium of environmental groups, so there is bound to be lots of interest from other elected officials, who will be seeking to replace him.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Public Resources Code Sections 30300, 30301, 30301.5, 30304, 30305, 30310, 30310.5, 30312, 30313, 30314, 30315, 30315.1, 30316, 30317, and 30318 spell out how the Coastal Commission nomination and appointment process works. You can get access to these sections of law online, at www.leginfo.ca.gov.

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery
?codesection=prc&codebody=&hits=20

You can get earlier and the most recent (2007) California Coastal Commission Conservation Voting Chart on the Coastwatcher Website
http://www.coastwatcher.com/