Tonight, the Santa Cruz City Water Commission will be meeting at the Santa Cruz City Hall, and you are cordially invited. The meeting starts at 7:00 o'clock, and all indications are that it's going to be a lively event. Among other things, the Commission is supposed to consider the planning documents that will guide the City's long-term water supply planning efforts. In case you haven't noticed, this is an area of some controversy! The Wittwer & Parkin law firm, to which I am "Of Counsel," is representing the Community Water Coalition. This community group is closely following water issues in the City of Santa Cruz. So is the Desal Alternatives Group, which maintains its own website. The proposed desalination plant, and possible alternatives, are almost certainly going to be a hot topic tonight. Desal Alternatives has published a thoughtful and thorough set of recommendations, including a proposal that new development should be required to demonstrate a "net zero" growth in water demand. Without that policy, existing users are in effect subsidizing developers.

If you are not a City resident, you may have a reason to follow this issue anyway. The City Water Department serves Live Oak, Pasatiempo, and even parts of the City of Capitola, and the cost and availability of your water in the future, is going to be decided by the Santa Cruz City Council.

My recommendation: get involved sooner rather than later. And why not tonight?

More Information:

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

Water Commission Meeting Notice and Agenda
http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.
aspx?recordid=2212&page=386

Desal Alternatives Website
http://desalalternatives.org/

Desal Alternatives Proposal For An Alternative Way To Do Water Supply Planning
http://desalalternatives.org/?page_id=425

The term "solar farm" has a nice ring to it, and I bet that most people feel pretty positive when they hear that a "solar farm" is going in somewhere, and particularly if the proposed facility isn't going to be placed anywhere near them. I say this advisedly. I am on a lot of email lists that help environmental activists around the state keep up to date on what is happening in the land use arena, and those who really know the land on which "solar farms" are proposed almost always have a lot of critical things to say.

In fact (thank you George Orwell for showing us how to do this), there really isn't much similarity between a solar power facility and a "farm." There is some, I suppose. A large-scale agricultural operation, conventionally called a "farm," is actually an industrial operation. And so is a so-called "solar farm." The issues involved in "solar farms" are typically issues that are raised when rural and agricultural landscapes are turned into industrial facilities.

These issues are not theoretical but are actual issues in San Benito County, and also in San Luis Obispo County. In general, lands that have biological and habitat values must essentially be "leveled" and "sterilized" in order to facilitate solar power installations, and the wildlife that depend on these lands are heavily impacted. If you'd like to do some reading on the subject, check out the transcript for today's Land Use Report.

More Information:

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

San Jose Mercury News article on San Benito County "solar farm"
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/
ci_18641569?nclick_check=1

San Luis Obispo County Tribune article on San Luis Obispo proposal
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/08/09/
1712391/solar-agree-to-wildlife-protections.html

You can get to San Luis Obispo County by following scenic Highway One down the coast. Most people heading to San Luis Obispo County from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, however, probably take Highway 101, which is a lot faster, and which is scenic in its own right.

Tomorrow, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission will be considering an item that is typical of items heard by Planning Commissions in the counties of Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey. The question is this: should a rather large rural parcel be subdivided? How scenic our rural landscapes remain is what is at stake when rural subdivisions are considered. At least that is one of the important issues. The cost to the public of providing services to the new parcels that are created by rural subdivisions is also a major concern. And there can be others. Water supply immediately comes to mind.

If you are a resident of San Luis Obispo County, and would like to weigh in on the proposed Devincenzo subdivision, which would create seven new residential parcels, between 3.2 and 20 acres each, from what is now a single 84-acre parcel, you can get some information in today's transcript. If you aren't a San Luis Obispo County resident, I hope this mention of the rural subdivision issue there will make you think about what kind of policies you'd like to see in your own county.

More Information:

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

San Luis Obispo Planning Commission Agenda, August 25, 2011
http://slocounty.granicus.com/
AgendaViewer.php?view_id=3&event_id=65

Decisions made at the local government level will determine whether or not our community provides adequate affordable housing opportunities; whether or not we build in ways that will minimize the effects of natural disasters, like floods and earthquakes; and whether or not we preserve commercially viable farmland. That, of course, is just a very partial list. Our personal participation in government, especially when we get organized with others, can greatly affect what our elected representatives do. However, lots of people are so distressed with government that they don't have any desire to participate, either as a member of the public, or as a candidate for public office.

There may be a reason for that. It has been my experience that many local government officials, who should be making the government respond to the needs and desires of the public, end up thinking that their job is mainly to preside over the governmental bureaucracy of whatever agency they've been elected to head. If that's true, they aren't really representing the people.

I served as an elected official for twenty years, and near the end of that time, I distilled down what I had learned into "Five Simple Rules." If you'd like to read them, track down the transcript of today's Land Use Report. Rule #2 says, "There is a bureaucratic momentum present in every institution (certainly including government). An elected official needs to remember that he or she was elected to run the bureaucracy – not the other way around."

More Information:

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

You can read a copy of Gary Patton's "Five Rules I Follow" by clicking on the sidebar at http://www.gapatton.net

A few weeks ago, it struck me that the kind of participation in government that I talk about so often could actually be considered a "time management" issue. Typically, time management gurus try to help us prioritize and fit in to a limited amount of time the many "individual" tasks that we all have to accomplish (or that we think we have to accomplish). But just as important is how we allocate our time as between our "individual" projects, and those activities that are related to our collective life together.

The unhidden agenda of the Land Use Report is to promote public participation in land use decision-making, because the decisions that government agencies make about the future use of the land will have many impacts on the environment, on the local economy, and on our success, or not, in achieving our social equity goals. Local government planning decisions do shape our future, and if we want to affect those key decisions, we need to be present and accounted for as the decisions get made.

Make no mistake; those who have a "business" or "economic" interest in land use decisions are "Johnny on the spot." If you're just a plain old member of the public, though, your involvement will probably be reflecting a more general "public" interest. So try to deploy some time management discipline so that you can help make sure that the public interest is represented, as land use decisions are made.

More Information:

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

"Time Management" Blog Entry For August 6, 2011
http://www.gapatton.net/2011/08/
218-time-management.html