The University of California Cooperative Extension has scheduled a “Growing Agritourism” workshop in Salinas. The workshop will take place this Wednesday, May 18th, and you can register online. Information is found in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. The workshop is going to provide a chance for farmers, agricultural and tourism professionals, local officials, and community leaders to sit down and talk about how to improve agritourism opportunities in the Central Coast region. Everyone involved in agritourism is invited.

“Agritourism” means agricultural tourism, which gives travelers a chance to visit working farms and ranches for enjoyment and education. It can include experiences such as visiting a pumpkin patch, tasting wine, staying at a guest ranch, enjoying a U-pick farm or attending a harvest festival. According to Penny Leff, who is the statewide agritourism coordinator for the UC Small Farms Program, “agritourism supports rural economies and strengthens urban-rural connections.” Monterey County, Santa Cruz County, and both San Benito and San Luis Obispo Counties have some real potential to increase their agritourism business. The challenge, of course, is that agritourism puts farmers and ranchers into a whole new business — the hospitality business — which means they need to learn a whole new set of skills.

More Information:

Gary Patton writes a daily blog, “Two Worlds / 365”
http://www.gapatton.net

The all-day workshop will be held at the offices of the UC Cooperative Extension, 1432 Abbott Street, Salinas. For more information contact: Penny Leff: Email - paleff@ucdavis.edu; Telephone - 530-752-7779.

Online registration is available at
http://www.sfp.ucdavis.edu/sfcnews/?article=103

Over the years, I’ve had an opportunity to try to “generalize” or even “philosophize” a bit about land use and land use policy, based on twenty years as a local elected official, and about seven years as an environmental lobbyist at the state level, and about the same amount of time as the Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting and inspiring sound land use policies through grassroots community action.

Here is one of my conclusions: size matters! In has been easier to get people involved in land use policy in Santa Cruz County than in many other places in the state of California. I think the size of Santa Cruz County has a lot to do with that. Santa Cruz County is the smallest county in the state, geographically, and it is far from the largest in terms of population. That has tended to mean that people think they can actually accomplish something by their involvement. And of course, thinking you can do something is always the first step towards accomplishing it. You’ll never accomplish anything unless you try, and when things seem too big to be understood, or controlled, people oftentimes just give up in advance. Santa Cruz County, in my view, has been very lucky to be have been small enough to give people the idea that their involvement could make a difference.

And you know, thinking about the land use history of Santa Cruz County, community involvement really has made a difference!

More Information:

Gary Patton writes a daily blog, “Two Worlds / 365”
http://www.gapatton.net

LandWatch Monterey County Website
http://www.landwatch.org

Land use policy decisions can have a dramatic and important impact on our future. Land use policy affects the environment; the economy; and it helps determine whether or not our communities will be successful in reaching their social equity goals. Environment, economy, and equity: land use policy has an impact on all of them.

In Santa Cruz County, community involvement in land use policy issues has made a real difference. Here is just a partial list of accomplishments:

· The preservation and protection of the Santa Cruz County North Coast, at one time slated for a new city, and a nuclear power plant, and various types of resort developments, including a proposed condominium project with its own airport, in Bonny Doon.

· No massive new freeways cutting through the middle of Santa Cruz, and cutting through what is now the UCSC campus, to join Highway One on the North Coast with Highway 17 and Highway One going south.

· Greenbelts all around the City of Santa Cruz; and

· The Measure J Growth Management System that brought effective “smart growth” principles to Santa Cruz County in 1978, including the preservation of commercially viable agricultural land for productive agricultural use, and an aggressive affordable housing program.

Land use policy making by local governments was also decisive in stopping offshore oil production along the California coast. And that started right here.

More Information:

Gary Patton writes a daily blog, “Two Worlds / 365”
http://www.gapatton.net

Starting next Monday, for the next couple of weeks, the KUSP staff, and specifically JD Hillard, will be taking responsibility for these weekday Land Use Reports. I expect to be back during the first week of June, and I may be able to provide some land use perspectives from abroad. I will be traveling outside the United States, and I am pretty sure that I am going to see some examples of land use policies that are both “better” and “worse” than what we see here in the Central Coast Region.

Our political and governmental traditions are heavily “individualistic,” which means that our community land use decisions tend to be more permissive than regulatory. This approach has some real “upside potential” since creativity is welcomed. Vibrant and attractive mixed use and commercial developments that make our local communities attractive, and economically successful, are sometimes the result. On the other hand, our “individualistic” approach to land use also gives us urban sprawl. That’s not as attractive, nor as cost effective.

I expect once again to be riding high-speed trains, and buses, and public transportation in general. In our country, the words “public” and “transportation” don’t really get together very much. Individualism gives us our car-centered culture, and that is probably the largest contributor to our sprawling growth patterns, so destructive both of the environment and our local economies.

More Information:

Gary Patton writes a daily blog, “Two Worlds / 365”
http://www.gapatton.net

Next Tuesday, May 24th, the Santa Cruz City Council is scheduled to consider a proposed hotel project, located at 407 Broadway, close to the intersection of Broadway and Ocean Street. This is the current site of the Unity Temple, which would be torn down in connection with the proposed project. If approved, the Hyatt Place Hotel would be four stories tall, and have 111 rooms. The Council is being asked to approve the project based on a Mitigated Negative Declaration, which means that no Environmental Impact Report (or EIR) has been, or is proposed to be, prepared.

Neighbors are concerned about the project, with traffic issues, and neighborhood integrity issues, right at the top of their list. So far, however, City staff and the City Planning Commission have been supportive of the project. If you have an interest in or concern about the specific project as proposed, or about the general practice of allowing very large scale commercial uses to impact existing residential uses, you should plan to attend and participate in the City Council meeting next week.

CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, says that a full EIR is required if a proposed development “might” have a significant adverse impact on the environment. Preparing an EIR, of course, would maximize the opportunity for public participation. Again, this isn’t the current plan. If you have some thoughts, let the City Council know!

More Information

Gary Patton writes a daily blog, “Two Worlds / 365”
http://www.gapatton.net

City Council Agenda Materials
http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=752

Proposed Hyatt Hotel, Initial Study
http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Modules/
ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=19077

Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration
http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Modules/
ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=19078

For information from the neighbors (NOLO/Neighbors of Lower Ocean), contact Zeke Bean - zeke@zekebean.com