I’ve got some good news for Monterey County residents. Up until very recently, Monterey County made a copy of the Board of Supervisors’ agenda available online, but that online agenda was just a listing of agenda items. If you spotted an item you wanted to know more about, you needed to make special arrangements, up to and including a personal visit to Salinas, to get a copy of the agenda materials. An online listing of agenda items is certainly better than nothing, but actually having a copy of the materials that the Board will be acting upon is immeasurably better.

Check below, you’ll find a link to what Monterey County is calling its “public agendas” service. Now, you not only get the agenda listing, but also a set of links, which make the agenda materials available online. This is the kind of system that Santa Cruz County and San Luis Obispo County have had for years, and it’s terrific to see this happening for Monterey County. Rumor has it that the Board’s newest member, Supervisor Jane Parker, had a lot to do with this. Salutations and congratulations to all involved!

Looking at the materials for Agenda Item #S-5 on tomorrow’s agenda, I can already advise you to mark your calendars for May 5th,when the Board will consider an extremely controversial proposed subdivision on River Road.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Monterey County Public Agendas
http://publicagendas.co.monterey.ca.us/

Last Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council met and voted to approve the La Bahia Hotel development. Next Tuesday, April 28th, the Council will meet again, and I believe will discuss implementation of the City-County-University of California “settlement agreement.” You might want to mark your calendar.

You may remember that a group calling itself the “Community Water Coalition” made a presentation to the City Council in February, pointing out that the City Manager had initiated an application at LAFCO to expand the City’s Sphere of Influence to provide water for more than 3,000,000 square feet of new construction on the UCSC “North Campus.” This part of the campus is now a natural reserve, and is not currently entitled to receive water service from the City. The LAFCO application would change that, and make an annual commitment of 152 million gallons of city water to facilitate this new UCSC growth. At a time of real water scarcity, this action by the City Manager could result in water cutbacks to existing city water customers, both residents and businesses. There’s a link to an article discussing below.

The Santa Cruz City Council is also meeting this afternoon, to review the City’s proposed Three Year Capital Improvement Program. If you’re interested in a bicycle parkway on King Street, you should be at this meeting. It starts at 4:00 p.m.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

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

People Power supports the King Street Bike Boulevard
http://peoplepowersc.org/

Good Times Article on the Community Water Coalition
http://www.gtweekly.com/20090408405225/
good-times/covers/mission-accomplished#comment-787

Let me give you a “heads up” on a couple of interesting meetings being held this evening. First, I’d like to highlight a presentation in Monterey County hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula. This meeting is co-sponsored by a long list of other agencies and organizations, including the Monterey College of Law, the CSUMB Masters in Public Policy Program, Monterey Peninsula College, and the Green Party of Monterey County. From 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, located at 1 Old Golf Course Road, in Monterey, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen will speak on “Voting Integrity.” This presentation is free and open to the public. Since I regularly advise listeners to get involved in the public policy arena, and since important public policy matters are almost always finally settled at the ballot box, I’d be remiss if I didn’t encourage you to attend this important event.

In Santa Cruz County, there will be a meeting this evening to discuss the preliminary findings of the Desalination Pilot Plant Project, and the schedule for the potential full-scale desalination plant to serve the City of Santa Cruz Water Service Area and the mid-county areas within the Soquel Creek Water District. This meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Seymour Center at the Long Marine Laboratory.

There is more information on both events below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

League of Women Voters Website
http://www.lwvmp.org/

Information on the Debra Bowen presentation is available online at
http://www.lwvmp.org/calendar.html, or contact Beverly Bean by telephone at 831-484-2451, or by email at beverlygb@gmail.com

Information on the desalination project
www.scwd2desal.org

Seymour Center Website
http://www2.ucsc.edu/seymourcenter/

On April 16th, by a vote of 31 to 4, the California State Senate passed Senate Bill 211, authored by State Senator Joe Simitian. Senator Simitian represents a good part of Santa Cruz County. Assembly Member Bill Monning, who represents both Santa Cruz County and areas in Monterey County, is a Principal Coauthor of the bill.

One of the four “no” votes on Senate Bill 211 is also someone with local connections. That would be State Senator Jeff Denham, who represents Salinas and other cities located in the Salinas Valley. I guess Senator Denham hates open space, since Senate Bill 211 would make it possible for residents of Santa Cruz County to vote to establish an open space district. Note that the bill would not mandate the creation of an open space district; it would just let Santa Cruz County voters vote on the issue, and decide the matter democratically. It’s not clear why Senator Denham (and the other three Republican Senators who voted “no”) find that so objectionable.

Senate Bill 211 now goes to the Assembly. If you are a Santa Cruz County resident, and think you’d like the chance to establish an open space district, to help preserve open space and endangered habitats, why not look up the bill online, and then fire off some emails, letters, and telephone calls in support of your position. Of course, if you’re like Senator Denham, and don’t like the idea, you can do the same thing from that side. There’s more information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Bill information
www.leginfo.ca.gov

Senate Bill 211
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?
bill_number=sb_211&sess=CUR&house=B&author=simitian

Senator Simitian’s Website
http://www.senatorsimitian.com/

Assembly Member Monning’s Website
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a27/

Senator Denham’s Website
http://cssrc.us/web/12/default.aspx

The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County is a strong supporter of SB 211
http://www.landtrustsantacruz.org/

The Santa Cruz County Planning Commission is going to be holding a special meeting next Wednesday, April 29th. Their afternoon session, starting at 1:30, should be interesting. I’d like to invite you to check out the agenda, and then consider attending. You can get a link to the agenda by tracking down the transcript of today’s Land Use Report.

Agenda Item #10 is a public hearing to consider General Plan Amendments, a Rezoning, a Coastal Development Permit, and a Planned Unit Development Permit for property located at 280 State Park Drive, at the intersection of State Park Drive and Searidge Road, in the Aptos Planning Area. The neighbors know this property as the “Poor Clare’s” site, and there is quite a lot of controversy about the County’s proposal. Traffic concerns probably top the list. The County’s failure to prepare an EIR is also an issue. Concerned neighbors are getting organized, and I expect there to be a large turnout. It may be that affordable housing advocates will come as well, because the County considers this to be a key site for affordable housing development. The Board has already calendared a hearing before the full Board of Supervisors for May 12th.

As if this controversial item weren’t enough, Agenda Item #11 focuses on a proposed Planned Unit Development in the Atkinson Lane area adjacent to Watsonville. That proposal would ultimately mean the loss of a significant amount of commercially productive agricultural land. Again, you can get more details below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

April 29, 2009 Agenda, Santa Cruz County Planning Commission
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/planning/plnmeetings/
ASP/Display/ASPX/DisplayAgenda.aspx?
MeetingDate=4/29/2009&MeetingType=1

Information on the Atkinson Lane Proposal
http://www.sccoplanning.com/html/env/atkinson_lane.htm