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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of April 27, 2009 to May 1, 2009
Week of April 27, 2009 to May 1, 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 April 27, 2009 to May 1, 2009
- Monday, April 27, 2009
The Santa Cruz City Council Tomorrow
- Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Remember Those Planning Commission Meetings!
- Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Live Oak and Soquel Planning (Ahead)
- Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Pesticide Map of Monterey County
- Friday, May 1, 2009
Protecting and Preserving Agriculture
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, April 27, 2009 The Santa Cruz City Council Tomorrow |
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Tomorrow, the Santa Cruz City Council will consider official action to require water use cutbacks for residents and businesses in the City, in Live Oak, Pasatiempo, and parts of Capitola, and for farmers on the North Coast. The City Council is also being asked to authorize, on their Consent Agenda, the expenditure of a quarter of a million dollars to develop an Energy Minimization and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan for a proposed full-scale Seawater Desalination Facility. The City is still “studying” whether such a facility would be workable, and there is no guarantee that such a full-scale desalination facility will ever be approved or built. Designing the energy minimization system first, before making an official commitment to building a desalination plant, indicates just how much the Council is banking on this solution to the City’s water crisis. What is not on the Council’s agenda is any discussion of the City’s application to the Local Agency Formation Commission. Approval of the application would provide an additional 152 million gallons of water per year to UCSC (more than doubling UCSC’s current water allocation). The water would allow more than 3,000,000 square feet of new growth on the campus. The LAFCO application was made by the City Manager without any direct Council approval, and the Community Water Coalition has urged full public discussion. I guess that’s not going to happen; at least not tomorrow. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Remember Those Planning Commission Meetings! |
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Both the Monterey County and Santa Cruz County Planning Commissions are meeting tomorrow. For concerned residents, the Planning Commission is actually a very good place to focus your efforts. By the time an issue gets to the Board of Supervisors or the City Council, many key decisions may already be set in stone. There is usually still some flexibility of approach at the Planning Commission level. In Santa Cruz County, the Planning Commission has scheduled an afternoon hearing at 1:30 on a very controversial residential and visitor-serving proposal on the Poor Clare’s site, located on Estates Park Drive in Aptos. Neighborhood and housing issues are both at stake. If you care, be there! Similar advice is also appropriate with respect to another item coming before the Santa Cruz County Planning Commission tomorrow afternoon. A proposed Planned Unit Development and City Specific Plan for the Atkinson Lane area near Watsonville could put commercial agricultural land in jeopardy. In Monterey County, the Planning Commission will meet at 9:00 a.m., and will discuss the process by which the Commission will consider the proposed Monterey County General Plan revision, or GPU5. The County’s General Plan will guide the future growth of Monterey County well into the 21st Century. If you want to participate, tune in to tomorrow’s Planning Commission deliberations. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Live Oak and Soquel Planning (Ahead) |
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The whole concept of “planning” is that we should think about what we are trying to do, figure out how best to do it, and then adopt (as a “plan”) a set of guidelines or instructions, to formalize our approach, and to make sure that future activities will operate consistently in the direction we’ve decided is best. If we don’t take our own plans seriously, and follow them, the whole planning process breaks down. Then, we get a series of individual actions or decisions that may well not take us in the direction we’re trying to go. Where community “planning” is concerned, there are two essential elements: first, really get the community involved, so that all those affected can consider the alternatives, and so that everyone has a chance to help devise a plan that makes sense for the community at large; second, follow that plan once adopted! Santa Cruz County Supervisor John Leopold is advertising upcoming meetings, to help get you involved in planning future actions by the County’s Redevelopment Agency. The Redevelopment Agency will have money to spend on key community projects, and getting the right plan in place is step one. I’ve put a link to the Redevelopment Agency’s website below. It’s at www.buildastrongersoquelandliveoak.com.” Workshops are coming. Plans are being made. Now is the time to get involved! For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, April 30, 2009 The Pesticide Map of Monterey County |
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I almost always put links to more information in the transcript of each Land Use Report. Many listeners, I’m sure, don’t have the time or inclination to do additional research on the issues I discuss, but for those who do want to pursue a topic I mention, the written transcripts will generally give you a head start. Today, I want to alert you to a couple of companion websites, one in English, and one in Spanish, that might be of particular interest to Monterey County residents. In English, the website is called, “People, Place, and Health.” In Spanish, it’s “Gente, Lugar y Salud.” Both websites provide information about pesticide use in Tulare and Monterey Counties, and the data is correlated to some degree with important land use data. The information provided comes out of the collaborative research of a number of different institutions, including the California Center For Rural Policy. With respect to Monterey County, the communities specifically highlighted include Gonzales, Greenfield and Salinas. The two websites allow visitors to download maps documenting pesticide use, and to make comparisons between these pesticide use maps and detailed community maps. A final project report details the methods used and the findings made, and provides some policy recommendations. A comprehensive pesticide atlas is also available, compiling over 80 maps. Information about data sources and analysis are provided in the atlas. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, May 1, 2009 Protecting and Preserving Agriculture |
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In the Central Coast region, agriculture directly employs tens of thousands of workers, and indirectly supports many more. Agriculture really is, as it’s usually called, an agricultural “industry.” Preserving agricultural land is a way to help protect and preserve the industrial base of our local economy. No one in their right mind would consider eliminating industrial designations in the Silicon Valley, and tearing down industrial facilities there, to replace them with car lots or subdivisions. That would cut the heart out of the industrial base of the Silicon Valley. Why is it that so many people fail to see that the situation is the same right here, with respect to the agriculturally designated lands that support our agricultural industry? Converting our Central Coast industrial lands (that is to say our “agricultural” lands) to non-agricultural uses puts our own industrial base in peril. Other policies to maintain the health of our agricultural industry are also important. One of these is maintaining a requirement that new non-agricultural uses be set back from adjacent agricultural lands, to minimize future conflicts. A recent decision by the Santa Cruz County Environmental Coordinator, signing off on a much reduced ag-buffer, makes me wonder if Santa Cruz County is taking those ag-buffer issues as seriously as it really should. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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