Hardly anything is more important to a local community than a safe and secure water supply. Because that’s true, many cities provide their own water supply, rather than relying on private companies. The City of Santa Cruz does that, and so does the City of Watsonville. So does the City of Morro Bay, located in San Luis Obispo County.

This evening, the Morro Bay City Council is going to be considering an important policy question: should the City continue to furnish water to allow the development of properties located outside the current city limits? The City Council meeting begins at 6:00 p.m., and this policy discussion is Agenda Item B-1. As global warming puts water supplies in jeopardy, and as growth and development continue to demand more water, getting a handle on this important policy question makes sense. If you’re a Morro Bay resident, you might want to attend tonight’s meeting.

You also might want to pay attention to this issue if you’re a resident of the City of Santa Cruz, or if you live within the City of Santa Cruz Water Service Area, which includes the entirety of Live Oak and Pasatiempo, and part of the City of Capitola. The Santa Cruz City Council is proposing a major expansion of its delivery of water services outside its current Water Service Area, to facilitate growth at the UCSC campus. The question, of course, is what that means for current water users.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

City of Morro Bay Website
http://www.morro-bay.ca.us/

City Council Agendas and Minutes
http://www.morro-bay.ca.us/archive.aspx

Agenda, September 28, 2009 Meeting
http://www.morro-bay.ca.us/archives/37/01-28-09
%20agenda%20&%20staff%20reports.pdf

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meets at 9:00 o’clock this morning, and there is an important policy item on the agenda. Here’s the question: how much should Santa Cruz County grow during the year 2010?

Residents of Santa Cruz County may think that posing this question, as a matter of public policy, is something that virtually all local governments do. That, however, is far from the case. Virtually no other local government in California asks this question. Most places, growth just “happens to” a local community. In other words, individual personal and business decisions simply add up to a result, and that’s what causes growth. In Santa Cruz County, the voters decided in 1978, by passing Measure J, and enacting a comprehensive growth management system, that they wanted to put the community in charge of future growth. In Santa Cruz County, the future growth of the community is supposed to be the result of a community decision-making process, not the result of individual actions added up.

It would be hard to overstate what a fundamental difference this makes for a community over the long term. The idea that we should make these fundamental decisions by acting together, as a community, is more or less revolutionary. For more information see below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Board Agenda
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/ASP/
Display/SCCB_AgendaDisplayWeb.asp?MeetingDate=9/29/2009

Staff Report on 2010 Growth Goal
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/
BDSvData/non_legacy/agendas/2009/20090929/PDF/054.pdf

Measure J
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/publications02/
081802MeasureJtext.pdf

The Story of Measure J
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/publications02/
081802MeasureJstory.pdf

Road-widening projects do not, generally, relieve traffic congestion very much. The unfulfilled demand for road capacity so far exceeds the current capacity of most roads that when new capacity is provided new traffic quickly manifests itself. The result is that we’re right back in the same traffic jam we had before, but with more cars caught in the jam.

Traffic engineers call this phenomenon “induced demand,” meaning that the new capacity provided by the road widening actually “induces” additional cars to use the road. Anyone who has watched the history of road-widening projects in the Silicon Valley pretty much becomes a believer that there is no way that we can build ourselves out of traffic congestion.

The intellectual truth of this proposition, supported by both theory and past history, is often swept aside, as both politicians and the public feel the need to “do something” about truly insupportable congestion. In Santa Cruz County, traffic congestion on Highway One provokes this response. Currently, there is a new proposal to do another piecemeal Highway One widening project. This proposed project is contraindicated in a time of global warming, and is almost certainly not the best way to spend our scarce transportation dollars to reduce congestion. Nonetheless, the widening project is moving ahead. You can get more information below.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Caltrans Project Website on Latest Widening Proposal
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/projects/soquel/

Wikipedia Article on “Induced Demand”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

Livable Streets and Induced Demand
http://www.livablestreets.com/streetswiki/induced-demand

Yesterday, I discussed the concept of “induced demand,” a phenomenon that is generally recognized by traffic engineers. In the transcript of yesterday’s Report, I provided a link to an article that cited to another article, by Todd Litman, entitled “Generated Traffic: Implications for Transport Planning.” Todd Litman heads up the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, a “think tank” headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, which focuses on the relationship between land use and transportation policy. Listeners who would like to see how transportation planning and land use planning work together (or don’t, if they are not done properly) will find lots of good materials on the VTPI website.

One of the most recent policy papers released by VTPI is entitled, “Where We Want To Be: Home Location Preferences And Their Implications For Smart Growth.” Smart growth critics argue that sprawl reflects consumer preferences and market demands. Smart growth advocates argue that sprawl results from planning distortions, and that correcting these distortions can shift the market towards smart growth development patterns that better reflect consumer preferences, and that will benefit both consumers and society overall. The latest VTPI report investigates these issues, and it’s well worth reading. I think it makes a pretty good case for smart growth.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Victoria Transport Policy Institute
http://www.vtpi.org/

“Where We Want To Be” Article
http://www.vtpi.org/sgcp.pdf

Is the current overdraft condition in the Pajaro Basin a groundwater “emergency,” requiring an emergency response? A groundwater basin is something like a savings account. If you are spending more than you earn, but you have some savings, you can go on living beyond your income, as long as those savings last. Spending more than you are taking in doesn’t necessarily create an “emergency” unless your reserves are nearly gone, or unless your rate of spending is wildly in excess of your income.

This “savings account” analogy only goes so far, however, with respect to the Pajaro Basin, since the declining level of water in the underground basin is allowing seawater to flow into the basin from offshore. That process of saltwater intrusion degrades or even destroys the value of the water that is left. Because the rate of overdrafting of the Pajaro Basin is substantial, and since overdrafting the basin is destroying the quality of the water accumulated in the basin (our water “savings account”) I’d say a real “emergency” does exist.

Under state law, the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency has responsibility to manage the Pajaro Basin. If the Agency fails or is unable to act, it may be that the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will declare a groundwater “emergency,” pursuant to County Code Section 7.70.130, and take over management responsibility.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information

Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency Website
http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/

PVWMA Groundwater Modeling
http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/hydrology/modeling.shtml