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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of April 4, 2011 to April 8, 2011
Week of April 4, 2011 to April 8, 2011
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 4, 2011 to April 8, 2011
- Monday, April 4, 2011
The Santa Cruz City Water Commission Tonight
- Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Santa Cruz City Council Today
- Wednesday, April 6, 2011
LAFCO Meets In Santa Cruz
- Thursday, April 7, 2011
White Paper One: The Capitola GPU
- Friday, April 8, 2011
An “America The Beautiful Act” in Our Future?
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 4, 2011 The Santa Cruz City Water Commission Tonight |
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The law firm with which I am associated follows water policy issues for the Community Water Coalition. On their behalf, I’m planning to be downtown tonight, to hear a report being presented at a meeting of the Santa Cruz City Water Commission. The meeting will be held in the Santa Cruz City Council Chambers, at City Hall. It starts at 7:00 p.m. You don’t have to be an attorney to attend. Everyone is invited! The main item on the agenda tonight is an updated Water Supply Assessment for the City of Santa Cruz. Don’t get distracted by all that rain we’ve just had. Coursing creeks running through the middle of your community, or flooded streets, or sodden lawns and slip-sliding road cuts don’t necessarily mean that all is well in our water future. Quite the contrary, based on the document being presented to the Water Commission tonight. The staff report, which is available online, says that the City’s water supply for a “normal” hydrologic year is sufficient to meet demand through 2020. In other words, if we have normal hydrologic conditions (and sometimes we don’t; sometimes we have droughts) everything is peachy for the next nine years. And that doesn’t take into account meeting the demands of the resource agencies, that say the City is killing endangered species by the way it runs its water system. From Capitola, to Live Oak, to the City, to Pasatiempo, your future is deeply linked to the City’s water policy. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, April 5, 2011 The Santa Cruz City Council Today |
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Last night, the Santa Cruz City Water Commission considered an updated Water Supply Assessment for the City’s Water Service Area. That not only includes the City; it also includes all of Live Oak, parts of Capitola, Pasatiempo, and agricultural users on the North Coast. If you live or work in Santa Cruz County on the ocean side of Highway One, north of 41st Avenue, you likely have a personal stake in how the City runs its water system. The law firm with which I work represents the Community Water Coalition, which is dedicated to following the City’s water policies on behalf of the natural environment and current water users. You don’t have to join the group to get involved yourself! If you do want to get involved, and didn’t go to the meeting last night, you have another opportunity for personal engagement this afternoon. At 4:00 o’clock, the Santa Cruz City Council will receive a report that the City Water Director calls a “game changer.” As reported yesterday, the City’s water supply (during normal years) is only sufficient to meet expected demand for the next nine years. But that projection, disturbing as it is, didn’t take into account the fact that the City is currently killing endangered species by taking too much water from the San Lorenzo River and North Coast streams. The City’s water supply situation, in other words, is worse than what was reported last night. You can get the “rest of the story” this afternoon at City Hall. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, April 6, 2011 LAFCO Meets In Santa Cruz |
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The Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, is the most important governmental agency that most people have never heard of. I am happy to report that regular listeners to this Land Use Report don’t fall into that category. However, even if you have heard of LAFCO, you have probably never gone to a LAFCO meeting. Consider this an invitation! LAFCO meets this morning in the Santa Cruz County Government Center, starting at 9:30. Sometime this year, probably this Fall, I expect that a lot of people will be attending a LAFCO meeting, since LAFCO is going to be making a decision about whether or not to allow the City of Santa Cruz to extend its water services to areas not now served. Since the City’s water supply situation is so problematic (as I reported both Monday and Tuesday), I am hoping that members of the public will pay attention, and get involved. Our future does depend on the land use, transportation, and water policy decisions made at the local level, and the upcoming LAFCO decision will be truly significant. As for today, LAFCO is going to decide whether or not to allow a property located in the Freedom Area to connect to the Freedom County Sanitation District, to receive sewer service to replace a flooded septic system. That is a small matter, but the laws that LAFCO are applying, in this case, are the same laws that have helped prevent urban sprawl into the agricultural lands of the Pajaro Valley. That’s big! For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, April 7, 2011 White Paper One: The Capitola GPU |
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Capitola residents have an opportunity to help plan the future of their community, since the City of Capitola has just embarked on a comprehensive General Plan Update process, and the City Council and the City’s Planning Department are urging residents to get involved. Have you ever heard of the “Safety Element” of the local General Plan? That’s a required part of every General Plan, thanks to provisions found in the State’s Planning and Zoning Law. If I were a Capitola resident, I’d like to see just how the City’s current General Plan policies relate to the kinds of natural disasters that City businesses and City residents have so recently experienced. Those kinds of issues are ones that the General Plan is supposed to have done some hard thinking about, in advance. Whatever the current policies may be, the next City General Plan can certainly incorporate information and experience from the disasters that have just occurred to Capitola during the recent flooding. The key to making sure this happens, of course, is public involvement. And yes, when I say “public,” that does mean “you.” Track down the transcript of today’s Land Use Report, found on the KUSP website, and you’ll see links to information on the Capitola GPU process. Most specifically, I recommend that you check out “White Paper #1,” and that you plan to attend the next public meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, April 27th, at 6:00 p.m. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, April 8, 2011 An “America The Beautiful Act” in Our Future? |
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The Republican Party has consistently opposed any regulation that might prevent an individual property owner from doing whatever he or she might want to do with his or her land. Nonetheless, Kaid Benfield, who advocates for “smart growth” laws in Washington, published a blog post last Friday that said this: “In an initiative apparently designed to win environmentally minded voters to GOP ranks, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner is … introducing a bill to stem the spread of suburban sprawl and [to] conserve rural lands. ‘A conservative is first and foremost someone who conserves,’ said the Speaker. ‘President Nixon recognized this forty years ago, and it is time to reclaim his legacy.’” Benfield’s blog quotes extensively from President Nixon’s 1973 address to Congress, which said, among other things, “the Federal Government must exercise leadership in land use decision processes….” Benfield really had me believing that Speaker Boehner had indeed decided to capture President Nixon’s legacy by introducing an “America The Beautiful Act,” which would truly be “conservative” in the best sense of that term. Benfield is a reliable voice. But last Friday was April 1st. Benfield got me: April Fools! Check out today’s transcript for a link to some very good words on land use from President Nixon. They are all still true! For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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