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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of June 7, 2010 to June 11, 2010
Week of June 7, 2010 to June 11, 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 June 7, 2010 to June 11, 2010
- Monday, June 7, 2010
The Budget And Land Use (City of Santa Cruz)
- Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Budget And Land Use (Monterey County)
- Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Erosion And The General Plan
- Thursday, June 10, 2010
In The Legislature
- Friday, June 11, 2010
Mark Your Calendar (The CWC In Court)
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, June 7, 2010 The Budget And Land Use (City of Santa Cruz) |
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Tomorrow, the Santa Cruz City Council will be holding one of its regular meetings. Today, however, and Wednesday, too, perhaps, the Council will also be in session, focusing on the City budget for the next fiscal year. If you’d like to see exactly what the Council is going to be discussing, it’s easy to get access to the agenda, and to the supporting materials that the Council will reference. I’ve put links in the written transcript of today’s Land Use Report. As always, I very much encourage you to get personally involved. Local government actions will have a profound effect on the future of the community, and that means that they will have a profound effect on you and your family. Local governments all over the state are in various stages of fiscal crisis, and the City of Santa Cruz is not excepted. About a month ago, things got worse, in terms of budget balancing, when the Council decided, without any prior public hearing or public involvement, to fill police vacancies at an annual cost of at least a million dollars. Something else is going to have to go. If you’d like to be heard on the trade offs, rather than just read about them in a newspaper, your personal participation is required. Land use items are part of the mix, and if you’d like to comment on the land use portion of the City budget, the Council is expected to get to it sometime after 1:00 o’clock this afternoon. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, June 8, 2010 The Budget And Land Use (Monterey County) |
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The fiscal year for local government runs from July1st to June 30th. That means that local governments all over the state are just now making decisions on their budgets for the upcoming 2010-2011 fiscal year. Today, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors is taking up its budget, and the agenda lists various items relating to the environment and land use. Taking the agenda at face value, however, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors doesn’t see much to talk about in this area, since it lists all items under the “Environment and Land Use” heading as “consent” items, which usually means that no discussion will occur, unless a Board Member or a member of the public specifically requests that there be discussion before action. Here are just a few of the budget categories that the Board sees as “consent” items:
If you have something to say about these topics, or the other items included in the proposed 2010-2011 County budget, there’s a meeting you should attend, and that meeting is being held today, starting at 9:00 o’clock, in Salinas! For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Erosion And The General Plan |
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Monterey County may be getting close to adoption of a new General Plan. I say, “may be” advisedly. The version currently under review is General Plan Update #5. There have been four earlier attempts, all of which stalled when they got to the Board of Supervisors. The Board, of course, is the final decision making authority, and that means that Board Members will have to make some tough choices about what sort of policies to include in the new General Plan. Not everyone agrees on everything. LandWatch Monterey County, for instance, still has a few changes they’d like to see. LandWatch is a nonprofit organization based in Salinas, which states that its mission is to “promote and inspire sound land use policies through grassroots community action.” In a letter sent to the Planning Commission, dated May 24th, attorneys for LandWatch noted what they think are significant deficiencies in the Final Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, which is going to guide the County as it makes its decisions on what General Plan policies to include, exclude, or modify. LandWatch is concerned about erosion from steep slopes, if the current General Plan Update proposals are adopted. The proposed new General Plan strengthens County policies in a number of areas, but would actually weaken current standards in terms of agricultural operations on steep slopes in the Salinas Valley. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, June 10, 2010 In The Legislature |
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Just as City Councils and Boards of Supervisors are preparing their 2010-2011 fiscal year budgets at this time, so is the State Legislature preparing the state’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Officially, the state budget is due on June 15th, but the Legislature certainly won’t make that deadline this year. I spoke to a knowledgeable environmental lobbyist last week, and was told that those who work in the State Capitol think that the state budget might be delayed until after the upcoming elections in November. Hopefully, that won’t actually be the case, but the challenges facing the state are so gigantic that “decision avoidance” is definitely an attractive proposition. Meantime, state workers are hearing from the Governor that he will use the authority he got in a recent court decision to reduce all their pay to the state’s minimum wage, starting July 1st. One way to avoid looking into the abyss of the state budget deficit is to focus on what else is going on in Sacramento. If you care about land use and environmental issues, I’d invite you to track down the written transcript of today’s Land Use Report, which links to a listing of some of the bills now under consideration in the Legislature. CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, is under attack this year (and that attack on CEQA may play itself out in the state budget process, too). In addition, there are some positive proposals that have a real chance of success. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, June 11, 2010 Mark Your Calendar (The CWC In Court) |
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The Santa Cruz City Manager authors a “Budget Message” each year, and given that the City’s budget situation is so difficult, this year’s “Budget Message” is particularly worthwhile reading. I was struck by what the City Manager said about the City’s water situation. And of course, the City’s water situation affects many people who are outside the City, including residents and businesses in the entirety of Pasatiempo and Live Oak, and in part of the City of Capitola. Here are a few quotes from the City Manager: We have 60 years of rainfall data, which are meaningless. It is silly to think that the most challenging drought of the last 60 years is a real worst-case scenario. … In a modest drought…we are in trouble. In a severe drought, we are in deep trouble. … Moreover, we have an over-stretched system in the best of times. We have an old water system. We have inadequate supply. Assuming that the City Manager’s statements are accurate, should the City Council expand its commitment to deliver water to facilitate 3,000,000 square feet of new construction at UCSC? Amazingly, enough, the Council has never given the public an opportunity to comment on this proposal. The Community Water Coalition is trying to make sure the public does get a chance to be heard in front of the City Council. There will be a court hearing on June 29th, in case you want to mark your calendars. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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