The Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors will be meeting at 7:00 o’clock tomorrow evening (that’s Tuesday evening, February 4th). The meeting will be held at the Capitola City Council Chambers, and the public is very much encouraged to attend and participate. In fact, the District’s General Manager went out of her way to ask me to make sure that Land Use Report listeners know about the meeting tomorrow. The Board is going to be hearing from a number of experts, and will be focusing on possible recycled water options as a potential water supply, to help the District deal with the very serious seawater intrusion problems now affecting the District’s ability to provide a reliable and long-term water supply for its customers.

Who are those customers? Most of the people living in the City of Capitola, and pretty much everyone living in Soquel, Aptos, Rio Del Mar, and La Selva Beach is a customer of the Soquel Creek Water District. Private well owners may not be customers, but they are affected by groundwater overdraft, too, and I hope many mid-county residents will be able to attend.

As a reminder, the City of Santa Cruz Water Commission is meeting tonight, at 7:00 p.m. at the Santa Cruz City Hall. That is likely to be an interesting meeting, too, with mandatory water rationing likely to be a hot topic! There is more information on both meetings below.

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Soquel Creek Water District Website
• City of Santa Cruz Water Commission Agenda
• Last Week’s Land Use Report on City Water Commission

There are serious water issues in both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Of course, the whole state faces very significant water supply challenges right now. On Friday, January 31st, the State Department of Water Resources cut back to zero water allocations to agricultural and other water users south of the Delta. The economic and other impacts of this action will be profound. With luck, the current drought is not the "new normal" for the state, and significant rain and snow will be returning to California (and hopefully soon).

But even if significant rains return, the water issues facing Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties aren’t going away. Continuing groundwater overdraft exists in the Salinas Valley, in the Pajaro Valley, and in the Santa Cruz mid-county area. Either new water supplies must be developed, or conservation measures will have to be implemented. That can include using recycled wastewater, which is the topic that will be discussed tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Capitola City Hall.

The Salinas City Council, meeting this afternoon at 4:00 p.m., is going to hear a presentation from Deepwater Desal. This private company thinks they have a good way to generate fresh water from seawater at their facility in Moss Landing. There has been some talk of building a large regional facility, perhaps serving areas from Salinas to Santa Cruz. Here is another good meeting to attend!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Salinas City Council Agenda For February 4, 2014 Meeting
• Soquel Creek Water District Website
• Deepwater Desal Website

The Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, will meet this morning, at 9:30, at the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center. You are invited!

Last week, State public health officials identified 17 towns and water districts that could completely run out of water within 100 days. On the list is the Lompico County Water District. Today, LAFCO will be receiving a status report on organizational options for the Lompico County Water District. I have to think that the discussion will be conducted with a real sense of urgency. The idea that the Lompico County Water District might merge with the San Lorenzo Valley Water District has been discussed for at least a couple of years. As you can imagine, there are real financial and other obstacles. The current drought, though, could be a catalyst. If I were a Lompico Water District customer, I’d be heading down to the LAFCO meeting this morning.

NOT on the today’s LAFCO agenda is any action on the application by the City of Santa Cruz to extend water service to UCSC, to allow the University to construct over 3,000,000 square feet of new buildings. I am the attorney for the Community Water Coalition, which has been opposing this idea. It is just speculation, but the drought may have convinced both the City and UCSC to drop any further action at this time.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• LAFCO Website
• Santa Cruz County LAFCO Agenda, February 5, 2014 Meeting
• San Francisco Chronicle Article Listing Water Districts Threatened by Drought

If you want to follow land use items, you need to think about both water and transportation, too. So, for Land Use Report listeners who would like to know what is happening on the transportation front, let me announce a meeting that will begin at 9:00 a.m. today, Thursday, February 6th. This is a meeting of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, and it will be held in Watsonville.

The big item on today’s agenda is Agenda Item #17, scheduled for 9:15 this morning. This is a public hearing to consider certifying an Addendum to the Final Environmental Impact Report (or FEIR) for the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network Master Plan. Adoption of a revised Plan is another action that the staff is recommending.

In summary, after final adoption of the Scenic Trail Network Master Plan in November of last year, the Commission continued to hear concerns about Segment #17 of the proposed rail trail. This is the "Harkins Slough" segment, extending from the intersection of Buena Vista Drive and San Andreas Road to Lee Road. The staff is now suggesting that changes be made, and they do not appear to be minor changes, either. Unfortunately, you’ll have to go to the meeting to get the details. They are not online.

You can get links to more information about the meeting below.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Agenda, Transportation Commission
• Website Pages on Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network
• Trail Network Master Plan Final

Let me tell you about a land use policy issue in the City of Palo Alto. There is a generally applicable lesson here, and one that should be of interest to Land Use Report listeners.

In Palo Alto, the Zoning Code includes a "Planned Community" or PC Zone, which the City Council can use to approve developments that are inconsistent with normal zoning requirements, providing the Council finds the development will have "public benefits." Employing that PC designation, the Council approved a housing project last June. Opponents mounted a referendum, and the project was overwhelmingly defeated in the November election. In essence, the voters decided that the proposed housing development was incompatible with the rest of the neighborhood’s zoning and character. The whole PC concept, however, is now under attack. The idea that elected officials should be able to trade off neighborhood zoning protection for things that the Council considers to be "benefits" is quite dangerous. It is difficult to value the so-called benefits, and even more difficult to make sure that they are permanent.

The temptation to bargain with developers, and to trade away neighborhood protections for "benefits," is not a practice restricted to Palo Alto. I hope listeners will check out the analysis of the Palo Alto case that I have referenced it below.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Palo Alto Online Article On Zoning For Public Benefits