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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of December 21, 2009 to December 25, 2009
Week of December 21, 2009 to December 25, 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 December 21, 2009 to December 25, 2009
- Monday, December 21, 2009
An Important Proceeding Is Underway
- Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Water, Or No Water, For UCSC Expansion?
- Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Is A Water Supply Crisis Coming?
- Thursday, December 24, 2009
Get Involved In The EIR Process
- Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas Is About Gifts
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, December 21, 2009 An Important Proceeding Is Underway |
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| While the community focuses in on holiday celebrations, and our elected officials take a break, let me alert you to an important environmental impact review process now underway. The City of Santa Cruz and the University of California at Santa Cruz are jointly seeking approval to expand the City’s Water Service Area, so that the City can deliver water to undeveloped portions of the UCSC “North Campus.” This is not a minor matter. The University’s application for this “extraterritorial water service” seeks 1.52 million gallons of water each year, for the purpose of building approximately 3.2 million square feet of new construction in what is now an undeveloped and natural area.
As listeners may remember, the City, the County, and various community groups sued the University when it proposed this large-scale expansion into the UCSC North Campus area. After winning their lawsuits, the City and the County and the community groups and the University then thought better of the litigation approach, and entered into a mediated settlement process. That process resulted in what is called a “Comprehensive Settlement Agreement,” signed by the parties and then made part of an official Court Order in August of 2008. This week, I’m going to talk about that Comprehensive Settlement Agreement, outline what’s happening, and tell you how you can get involved. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Water, Or No Water, For UCSC Expansion? |
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The “Comprehensive Settlement Agreement” entered into by UCSC, the City of Santa Cruz, the County of Santa Cruz, and various community groups, outlines the conditions on which UCSC can expand its campus. The Agreement is Appendix C to the Draft EIR for the University and City applications to LAFCO, seeking approval for an expansion of the City’s Water Service Area. I’ve put a link to the Draft EIR in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. The campus expansion proposed in the UCSC Long Range Development Plan is not going to be “infill” within areas of the campus that are already committed to development, and that already have City water service. Instead, the University wants to build over three million square feet of new construction in the UCSC “North Campus” area, which is currently undeveloped, and which has been, both formally and informally, part of the University’s “Natural Reserve.” The Comprehensive Settlement Agreement didn’t say that all the parties were in agreement that this new expansion of the UCSC footprint was the right approach, and could proceed with no further review. Quite the opposite. The Comprehensive Settlement Agreement specifically required that the University get approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission (or LAFCO) prior to any campus expansion. The issue of main concern was water. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you more. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Is A Water Supply Crisis Coming? |
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The City of Santa Cruz provides water service not only to the City itself, but also to North Coast farmers, Pasatiempo, Live Oak, and parts of the City of Capitola. Everyone served by the City has a major stake in the City’s decisions affecting water. Virtually all of the water resources available to the City have been committed to current users, and any new expansion of water service (for instance to allow the expansion of the UCSC campus) will either take away the ability of the City’s system to provide water in “drier” years (and maybe even in “normal” years), or will require a new water source. The “Comprehensive Settlement Agreement” with UCSC specifically provides that the Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission (or LAFCO) will have to review and approve the proposal that the City expand its Water Service Area, before UCSC can actually carry out its current plan for campus expansion. Because of the environmental significance of the LAFCO decision, a full Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, is needed, and the Draft EIR is now available for comment. Water and land use do go together, and any good land use planning process has to make sure that there is adequate water available to serve proposed new development before that new development is permitted to proceed. Failure to follow this common sense rule leads directly to a water supply crisis. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, December 24, 2009 Get Involved In The EIR Process |
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The California Environmental Quality Act (or CEQA) is an “empowerment” law. It allows ordinary individuals to require the governmental agencies that make significant decisions affecting their lives to respond in detail to their comments before proceeding to make those significant decisions. In order to get the benefit of CEQA, however, you do need to participate. A Draft EIR for the City’s proposal to expand its Water Service Area is now available for comment. A link can be found in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. The Draft EIR says (and I quote) “the proposed project would result in future provision of water service to the North Campus portion of the UCSC campus…. There are inadequate water supplies to serve the project under existing and future multiple dry year (drought) conditions.” I left out a statement (and I quote again) that “there are adequate supplies to serve the project in normal years….” This is the statement I’d suggest you focus on, if you do decide to comment on the proposal to commit up to 152 million gallons of water a year to UCSC, for more than 3,000,000 square feet of new construction on their currently undeveloped North Campus. Members of the Community Water Coalition believe that this last statement is not actually true. If you run a business or have a residence that depends on City water, you might want to look into this yourself. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, December 25, 2009 Christmas Is About Gifts |
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While I think it is appropriate to oppose the massive "commercialism" of Christmas, and all the emphasis on gift purchasing and gift getting, Christmas does have something to do with gifts. We need to remember that the gifts we give at Christmastime are really symbolic of the gifts we have received ourselves. I have a rule, or principle, by which I try to live. I call it "The Principle of Attribution." When something good happens to me, to what should I attribute it? In other words, what's the cause of my good fortune, or success, or any other happy event? It's tempting to attribute our successes, and the good things that we get, to our own excellence and our own efforts. After all, we may work hard for a particular goal, so why not give ourselves the credit? We did it; we deserve it! There is another way to look at life. We can decide that all we have or obtain is a kind of gift. Christians would say that this is what the Christmas story is all about – a gift that God gave the world. The "Principle of Attribution" is less specifically religious, but it, too, tells us that all good things in life, and life itself, are gifts to us. Our ability to decide the future character and quality of the communities in which we live, through democratic decision-making around land use, is a gift to be celebrated – and a gift to be used! Today, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ahead. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton. |
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