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KUSP LandWatch
News
Week of June 13, 2011 to June 17, 2011
Week of June 13, 2011 to June 17, 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 June 13, 2011 to June 17, 2011
- Monday, June 13, 2011
Whispering Oaks
- Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Items At The (Santa Cruz County) Board
- Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Desal In Monterey County – Attend This Forum
- Thursday, June 16, 2011
America’s Great Outdoors Initiative
- Friday, June 17, 2011
Is Statewide Conservation Coming?
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 13, 2011 Whispering Oaks |
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Tomorrow, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will be taking up a major development proposal, the so-called "Whispering Oaks" Business Park Project sponsored by the Monterey-Salinas Transit District. If you care about oak trees, you might want to attend the Board meeting and participate. The business park proposal would require cutting down about 3,400, or maybe even 4,400, coast live oak trees on a portion of the former Fort Ord. I have noted this phenomenon before: you name your development after the natural feature that you will be destroying as you do the project. The Transit District proposal would result in major disruption to the equestrian trail system on Fort Ord, too. I’ve put links to various documents about the project in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. Citizens For Sustainable Marina is urging the Board of Supervisors to uphold the decision of the Planning Commission, which denied the project, finding that the proposed uses were not suitable for the site. This community group is not against all development, either. Tonight, they are sponsoring a meeting on a development they think has promise, a "live-work" facility that would reuse an existing structure, a former mattress factory. That meeting is at 7:00 o’clock this evening, in the Community Room at the Marina Municipal Airport. Think about checking out tonight’s meeting, and remember that Board meeting tomorrow! For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Items At The (Santa Cruz County) Board |
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Today’s a big day at the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, with that proposed "Whispering Oaks" business park development on the agenda. It’s a pretty big day for the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, too. Here are just a few of the items on the Santa Cruz County Board agenda:
If you are interested in the compensation received by members of the Board, you might also be interested in agenda item #69. I’ve put links to the Board’s agenda in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Desal In Monterey County – Attend This Forum |
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Regular listeners know that the City of Santa Cruz and the Soquel Creek Water District are planning to build a major desalination facility. Hopefully, listeners also know that an even bigger desalination facility is proposed in Monterey County. This Monterey County project, called the "Regional Water Project," is incredibly controversial, and is enmeshed in complexities of many kinds, including, most recently, major conflict of interest allegations. I very much encourage Monterey County residents to find out about this project, and to start untangling the complexities. Fiscal, environmental, and community development issues are all involved, not to mention issues of governance. Tonight, a community involvement forum on the Regional Water Project will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Seaside Community Center, 220 Coe Avenue in Seaside. The forum is sponsored by the Marina Coast Water District, the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, and Cal Am Water. In other words, this is a forum sponsored by the supporters of the proposed project. It’s free, and I’ve posted a link to the extensive agenda for the forum in the transcript of today’s Land Use Report. The idea for this meeting, as reflected in the agenda, is to explore whether public concerns might lead to real changes. This would be a good time to get involved in a project that can have multiple impacts on the future of Monterey County. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Thursday, June 16, 2011 America’s Great Outdoors Initiative |
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The Monterey Bay region has recently been identified as a pilot project area for the White House's America's Great Outdoors Initiative. Tomorrow morning, in Watsonville, representatives of various federal resource management agencies will be holding a focus session, convened in conjunction with Representative Sam Farr, to provide input on the importance of America's working landscape and outdoor recreational resources around the Monterey Bay. The June 17th forum is going to be held in the Watsonville Civic Plaza Community Room, 275 Main Street in Watsonville, from 10:00 o’clock till noon. The purpose of the Monterey Bay America's Great Outdoors Initiative is to identify partnership opportunities and to determine actions for natural resource protection and enhancement that will achieve water quality protection and that will lead to voluntary stewardship and collaborative regulatory planning in the watersheds that drain to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. As has often been noted here on the Land Use Report, our ocean and land resources are inextricably connected. If we want to protect and preserve the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, we need to do the right thing by way of our land use decisions. If you are interested in this forum, use the information in today’s transcript to contact the organizers. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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| Friday, June 17, 2011 Is Statewide Conservation Coming? |
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An article in the June 7th Hollister Free Lance has attracted my attention. There’s a link on the KUSP website at www.kusp.org. Here’s the gist of the Free Lance article: nobody knows exactly what’s happening, but there may be a new statewide conservation program in the wings, intended to preserve commercially productive farmland, on a voluntary (non-regulatory) basis. The main target of this new program would be farmland in the Central Valley, but almost 500,000 acres of farmland in San Benito County could be involved. Obviously, this is "thinking big." Apparently (and again, no one quoted in the article really has any hard information), the idea would be to have the state designate eligible areas, based on the value of the resources, and landowners could then "opt in" to a conservation easement program that would provide the landowners with money in exchange for enforceable promises to maintain agricultural use. According to the article (and again, it’s not really clear), representatives of the US Fish and Wildlife Service would also be involved. I, personally, think it’s ok to "regulate" farmland, to protect its agricultural values, as voters have done in Santa Cruz County. This program, being voluntary, might be an attractive alternative. I’m standing by for more news. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.
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Archives of past transcripts are available here
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