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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of March 30, 2009 to April 3, 2009
Week of March 30, 2009 to April 3, 2009
KUSP provided a brief Land Use Report on KUSP Radio from January 2003 to May 2016. Archives of past transcripts are available here.
Week of March 30, 2009 to April 3, 2009
- Monday, March 30, 2009
Tomorrow’s Board Meeting in Salinas
- Tuesday, March 31, 2009
La Bahia At The Civic
- Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Do You Have Plans For Tomorrow Night?
- Thursday, April 2, 2009
The “LegInfo” Website and AB 499
- Friday, April 3, 2009
More On AB 499: CEQA Made Better
The following Land Use Reports have been presented on KUSP Radio by Gary A. Patton. The Wittwer & Parkin law firm is located in Santa Cruz, California, and practices environmental and governmental law. As part of its practice, the law firm files litigation and takes other action on behalf of its clients, which are typically private individuals, governmental agencies, environmental organizations, or community groups. Whenever the Land Use Report comments on an issue with which the Wittwer & Parkin law firm is involved on behalf of a client, Mr. Patton will make this relationship clear, as part of his commentary. Mr. Patton’s comments do not represent the views of Wittwer & Parkin, LLP, KUSP Radio, nor of any of its sponsors.
| Monday, March 30, 2009 Tomorrow’s Board Meeting in Salinas |
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The Monterey County Board of Supervisors, meeting in Salinas tomorrow, will address several important land use-related items. The Moss Landing Community Plan, an update of which was originally scheduled for discussion, is probably not going to be one of them. It’s recommended that the Board continue consideration of that item until April 21st. If you have an interest in the future development of Moss Landing, you might want to mark your calendar. During its morning session, the Board will discuss the Global Warming Solutions Act (or AB 32). The agenda specifically suggests that the Board provide County staff with “direction on possible next steps.” Since every item on the Board’s agenda is open for public comment, before the Board itself takes action, this agenda item is actually an opportunity for Monterey County residents to give the Board their own ideas. If I were in the Board chambers tomorrow, I think I might well pop out of my seat for this particular agenda item, and emphasize to the Board how much impact the County’s land use policies will have on global warming emissions. Changing light bulbs is great. Stopping urban sprawl would have an even bigger effect. Finally, there is going to be a presentation by AMBAG, the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, on the so-called “blueprint planning process” for the Monterey Bay Region. This is an item that is directed, precisely, to how land use policy changes can help address global warming. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, March 31, 2009 La Bahia At The Civic |
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Tonight, the Santa Cruz City Council will be holding a special meeting at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. The meeting begins at 7:00 o’clock, and there is only one item on the agenda, which is described as follows: 215 Beach St. - Final Environmental Impact Report, General Plan/Local Coastal Plan/Program Amendments, Zoning Ordinance Amendments, Historic Demolition Permit, Historic Building Survey Deletion, Planned Development Permit, Coastal Permit, Design Permit, Special Use Permit, Residential Demolition Authorization Permit, Development Agreement and Tentative Subdivision Map for “La Bahia” Hotel Project – Demolition of an Existing 44-Unit Apartment Complex Building Listed on the City Historic Building Survey and Construction of a 125-Room Hotel with a Restaurant, Meeting Space, and a Partially Underground Garage (Barry Swenson Builders, Applicant/Filed: 1/6/06). Tonight’s meeting will be cablecast live on Community Television, Channel 25, but I’d certainly encourage your attendance in person. The proposed La Bahia project will have important impacts on the future of the City, and will reveal a lot about how willing the Council is to make developers follow its existing height and other regulations, or how willing it is to change its land use rules and regulations to achieve new tax revenues. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Do You Have Plans For Tomorrow Night? |
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Do you have plans for tomorrow night? If you’re a resident of the City of Santa Cruz, and are casting about for something to fill up those lonely evening hours, I’d like to suggest a 7:00 o’clock rendezvous with the City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission, which will be gathering at the Santa Cruz City Hall on Thursday evening, to discuss the proposed 2007-2014 Housing Element portion of the City of Santa Cruz General Plan. Last night, of course, the Santa Cruz City Council met on the proposed La Bahia project. The meeting tomorrow night will be of much smaller scale, but it’s also important. A “General Plan” is intended to delineate basic land use rules and regulations that will guide all future development. Of course, since a General Plan can be amended, many people don’t take it seriously. Developers, specifically, often combine their development proposals with a request for concurrent General Plan changes. That was true, for instance, in the case of the La Bahia proposal. If local elected officials frequently allow General Plan amendments, in connection with development applications, it becomes pretty hard to take General Plan requirements seriously. The Housing Element, since it has to be certified by the State, is harder to amend than other parts of the General Plan. There is also, at the current time at least, hardly any land use planning issue of more importance than housing. So, remember that rendezvous tomorrow. 7:00 o’clock at City Hall! For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, April 2, 2009 The “LegInfo” Website and AB 499 |
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I know it’s kind of hard to believe this, but our system of democratic self-government is actually based on the idea that we, ordinary citizens and residents, are pretty much up to speed, and know about, what our legislative representatives are doing with the powers we have granted to them. “Self-government” means that we ourselves know what is going on. What a concept! If you’d like to be better informed about what’s happening in Sacramento, since what’s happening in the Legislature will definitely affect our environment, and economy, and how successful we are in meeting our social equity goals, then you should be familiar with the “LegInfo” website. I’ve put a link in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. At www.leginfo.ca.gov, you can get immediate access to all existing California laws, and see what the Legislature is working on now. You can search by a specific code section, or by key word, and you can “subscribe” to any bill that might be of interest, and the website will send you an email as the bill moves through the legislative process. This is just a hint of the resources available on the LegInfo website. To try out this citizen empowerment tool, I’d like to suggest that you look up AB 499, by Assembly Member Jerry Hill. AB 499 would make some small but critically important changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, April 3, 2009 More On AB 499: CEQA Made Better |
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If you did the homework I suggested yesterday, you will have used LegInfo to check out AB 499. AB 499 was introduced on February 24th, and is set for hearing before the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources on Monday, April 13th. The bill will then go to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, if it passes out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. About five days before a committee hearing, a bill analysis will be posted on LegInfo, to explain to members of the committee (and to the public) what the legal impact of the bill will be. In this case, AB 499 proposes changes to Sections 21108, 21152, and 21167.6.5 of the Public Resources Code, all of which are part of CEQA. A lawsuit challenging a CEQA determination must name, as “real parties in interest,” every person who might be affected by the lawsuit. This is obviously fair. However, courts have held that those filing CEQA actions cannot assume that the list of such real parties in interest kept by the local agency is in fact accurate, which means that CEQA challenges are sometimes thrown out of court because the petitioners have not done something that they couldn’t have ever known they were supposed to do. AB 499 will correct this problem, and thus make CEQA fairer. It would make a small but important change in one of our most important environmental laws. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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