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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of March 22, 2010 to March 26, 2010
Week of March 22, 2010 to March 26, 2010
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 22, 2010 to March 26, 2010
- Monday, March 22, 2010
Important Water Meeting Tonight
- Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Reports To The Board
- Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Transportation Planning In Our Region
- Thursday, March 25, 2010
Future Of The Santa Cruz County North Coast
- Friday, March 26, 2010
Green California And The State Budget
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 22, 2010 Important Water Meeting Tonight |
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Tonight, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will be holding a special meeting, a “study session” to focus on the groundwater crisis affecting the Pajaro Valley. The meeting is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in the Watsonville City Council Chambers, located on the Fourth Floor of the Civic Plaza Building, 275 Main Street in Watsonville.
I wouldn’t tell you about this meeting if I didn’t think it was important. For more than fifty years, the extraction of groundwater from the Pajaro Basin has exceeded average annual recharge to the basin. If you think of the water in a groundwater basin as a kind of bank account, it is clear that we have been drawing down the balance available. Continuing the “bank account” analogy, one of the nice things about groundwater as a water supply source is that you can “spend” more than you “deposit,” in any particular year. Doing this, again using banking parlance, is called an “overdraft.” This isn’t true of surface water supplies. With surface water, you have to “spend” it as you get it (except insofar as storage facilities are constructed, to allow the later use of “surplus” waters from wetter years, or wetter seasons). You can think of the water users in the Pajaro Valley as “trust fund babies,” left a big bank account by their ancestors, and now about to go bankrupt, because they haven’t lived within their means. What to do about this? Tonight’s meeting might provide some guidance. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Reports To The Board |
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For cities and counties, the single most important planning document is the adopted General Plan. The General Plan serves as a “Constitution” for local land use, and all specific actions by the city or county have to be consistent with applicable General Plan provisions. State law requires each city and county to have a General Plan, which must be internally consistent, and which must address a number of very specific topics, including land use generally, safety, noise, circulation, open space, housing, and conservation. Other topics may also be addressed by the local General Plan. Besides requiring local governments to have a General Plan, state law requires local planning agencies to provide a report, each year, outlining how the General Plan has been administered. Today, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will receive just such a report. Check the written transcript of today’s Land Use Report for a link. The County Board of Supervisors is also getting another important report today, an annual report on the implementation of a Comprehensive Settlement Agreement between the University of California at Santa Cruz, the City of Santa Cruz, and the County of Santa Cruz. Again, a link is provided in today’s transcript. Among other things, the City and University are collaborating in an effort to have the last available surplus water under control of the City dedicated to future UCSC growth. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Transportation Planning In Our Region |
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In the realm of transportation, there’s a whole lot of planning going on! The transcript for today’s Land Use Report has links to the Draft Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Plan, the Draft Monterey County Regional Transportation Plan, and the Draft of a Monterey Bay Area Long Range Metropolitan Transportation Plan prepared by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments. Public involvement opportunities still exist for all of these plans. There’s an important hearing in Santa Cruz County on April 1st, and LandWatch Monterey County has scheduled an educational event on Thursday, April 8th, focusing on sustainable transportation. The LandWatch event will run from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the upstairs banquet room of the Montrio Bistro, located in downtown Monterey. It would be hard to overstate how important transportation planning is for the future of our local communities. Last Friday, as a matter of fact, the Santa Cruz County Bar Association held a rather unprecedented educational luncheon, to advise local attorneys on what is going on. Both Les White, the General Manager of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District and Fred Keeley, Santa Cruz County Treasurer Tax Collector, made a strong pitch for increased (and stable) transportation funding. Without the money to create a sustainable transportation system, all the planning in the world won’t make a difference. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, March 25, 2010 Future Of The Santa Cruz County North Coast |
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The future of the Santa Cruz County North Coast depends, in the long run, on what happens to the Coast Dairies and Land Company property. This 6,400-acre property was acquired by the Trust For Public Land, or TPL, in 1998. TPL didn’t actually purchase the land itself, but instead purchased the Coast Dairies and Land Company, which is still the official owner. The purchase was intended to ensure the permanent preservation of the North Coast, and was made possible by contributions from Santa Cruz County, the Packard Foundation, and the California Coastal Conservancy. TPL’s plan is to the transfer most of the property to the federal Bureau of Land Management, but with the commercial agricultural portions going to a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of agricultural land. All this is great, but there are a few difficulties. TPL and the Bureau of Land Management have wanted to accomplish a relatively small “trade” with CEMEX, and the fact that CEMEX is no longer operating its cement plant has made this complicated. In addition, neither TPL nor the County appears willing to get Coastal Commission approval for the division and transfer of land. State law seems pretty clear that a Coastal Development Permit is needed, and obtaining a permit would certainly ensure that there would be effective restrictions on the use of the land in the long term. I expect that you’ll be hearing more about this in upcoming months. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton. |
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| Friday, March 26, 2010 Green California And The State Budget |
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has set up a self-promotional “Green California” website, trumpeting what he would like Californians to believe is a “green” approach to public policy. There is also another “Green California” website, reporting on the efforts of the environmental groups that lobby on behalf of the environment in Sacramento. This “Green California” website is maintained by the California League of Conservation Voters, or CLCV. You can get links to both of these websites in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. If you visit the CLCV website, you can also sign up for the “Daily Green,” which provides links to all the most important news stories related to the California environment. I follow the “real” Green California, coordinated by CLCV, and here’s what I’ve learned about the Governor’s “non-Green” proposed budget: (1) He wants to eliminate the effectiveness of CEQA, or the California Environmental Quality Act. (2) He wants to eliminate all state support for public transportation. (3) He wants to fund State Parks by opening up new offshore oil drilling in California waters. (4) He wants to eliminate the Williamson Act subventions that support the preservation of agricultural land. (5) He wants to take away the money that lets the California Coastal Commission enforce the Coastal Act. In conclusion, if you hear someone talk about “Green California,” particularly the Governor, better check out which “green” that is. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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