Tomorrow, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will decide whether or not to establish a "Seascape Seawall Geologic Hazard Abatement District," charged with raising money from property owners who would be benefitted by creating the district, and by efforts to maintain a seawall in the Seascape area. I expect that the district will be established. If you would be affected, and particularly if you object, tomorrow is your last opportunity to speak out. The Board of Supervisors has discretion on whether or not to create the district unless the owners of property constituting more than fifty percent of the assessed valuation of the proposed district object to its formation.

I have links to more information at kusp.org/landuse. This item is a great example of how our governmental system provides mechanisms for collective action, so that what are in one sense "individual" problems can be dealt with effectively. Each individual property owner in Seascape who needs the protection of a seawall can't finance and maintain an individual seawall. It's uneconomic and it wouldn't work. The new district, if established, can provide a way to mobilize collective resources to address problems that individuals can't deal with themselves.

In fact, isn't this specific example of exactly what government, in all its forms, is all about?

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton's Two Worlds Blog
• Board of Supervisors Agenda - April 15, 2014
• Agenda Item #44 - Aptos Seascape Geologic Hazard Abatement District
• Reference to Geologic Hazard Abatement District in Public Resources Code
• LegInfo Website For State Law References

The "Governance Committee" of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project will meet tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. If you live on the Monterey Peninsula and are following the proposal to finance and build a new desalination plant, you might want to attend that meeting.

Despite its name, the "Governance Committee" is not able to "govern" the development of the proposed project in any direct way. I think the idea was that there ought to be some locally elected leaders fully engaged in overseeing this proposed project, since it is actually a project that would be carried out by a private, for profit company, California American Water. Cal-Am has lots of customers, who are members of the public, but its main objective is to keep its stockholders happy, and the stockholders might naturally place their own interests above the interests of the public.

As I noted last Friday, voters in the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District will get to decide, in June, whether or not to direct their elected representatives to pursue the possible buyout of Cal-Am, so that their public water supply is furnished by a public agency, instead of by a private, for-profit company. If you haven't started studying this important issue, I hope you will!

Meantime, think about attending that meeting, tomorrow. The meeting will be held in the Board Room of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District. Links to more information are found below.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton's Two Worlds Blog
• Governance Committee Website
• Governance Committee Agreement
• Governance Committee Membership
• Governance Committee Meetings and Agendas
• Governance Committee Agenda, April 16, 2014 Meeting
• The Land Use Report on Measure O

I like to keep up to date with what's going on in the land use world, all around the Monterey Bay Region. The San Lorenzo Valley is hidden away among the trees, at the very northernmost part of Santa Cruz County, and sometimes you have to do a little research, to find out what's going on up there. If you are interested, you should be aware that the Valley Women's Club maintains a website and distributes an email bulletin, that can definitely help you keep informed on some of the most important issues affecting the San Lorenzo Valley.

A recent bulletin from the Valley Women's Club alerted me to some news of which I had been unaware. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, is the world's oldest and largest global environmental organization. Among other activities, it maintains a "Red List" of threatened species. The Valley Women's Club reported that the IUCN has now placed the Sequoia Sempervirens, our beloved redwood tree, on that "Red List" of threatened species.

According to the IUCN, and I am quoting here:

It is imperative to place all remaining ‘old growth' forests... under strict protection. Logging the species should be under stricter regulation allowing regeneration to maturity of this species on all sites where it occurs in commercially exploited forests.

This is not really "news," but it is a sobering reality check. More public involvement to protect our redwood forests would seem to be in order!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton's Two Worlds Blog
• Valley Women's Club Website
• VWC Article - Bad News for Sequoia Sempervirens
• IUCN Red List Bulletin
• Information About The IUCN
• Red List Entry For Sequoia Sempervirens

Recently, I told listeners how important Planning Commissions are, in the context of reviewing the agenda of the Monterey County Planning Commission. Tonight, you could attend a meeting of the Planning Commission of the City of Santa Cruz, and see this truth about the importance of Planning Commissions play out in a different venue.

The Santa Cruz City Planning Commission meets this evening in the Santa Cruz City Council Chambers, starting at 7:00 o'clock. Two items are of very significant importance, from a land use policy point of view.

First, the Commission will consider the City's 2015-2017 Capital Improvement Program, to determine whether or not the CIP, as it's called, is consistent with the City General Plan. I often tell KUSP listeners that a City or County General Plan is the local government's "Constitution for land use." That is really only true if the actions that the local government takes are, in fact, "consistent" with the adopted General Plan. Public works spending has a big impact on the future of the local community. Unless those spending decisions are consistent with the General Plan, future growth and development will be unconstrained by land use policy decisions.

Second item tonight: new rules for "Accessory Dwelling Units" in the City. This affects both property owners and neighborhoods - not to mention the city's affordable housing crisis. There is more information below.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton's Two Worlds Blog
• Santa Cruz Planning Commission Agenda - April 17, 2014
• April 9, 2014 Land Use Report on the Monterey County Planning Commission

Earth Day, this year, is April 22nd. If you'd like to read a brief history of Earth Day, please hunt down today's transcript at kusp.org/landuse, where I have posted a link to the Earth Day Network website.

And if you'd like to participate, personally, in an Earth Day event, this year, check out that transcript! I have links to many such events, around the Bay, and a lot of them will be taking place tomorrow, Saturday, April 19th.

Save Our Shores, based in Santa Cruz, is sponsoring an Earth Day celebration in cooperation with the Marine Mammal Center and the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, or ALBA. This grand celebration is actually going to take place on the Triple-M Ranch, in the Elkhorn Slough watershed. Many listeners (and, of course, I count myself among them) are very much concerned with the preservation and protection of the marine environment in the Monterey Bay. Note that organizations that have that objective as their primary purpose are trying to do something on the land, to highlight what Earth Day is all about. In fact, how we use the land directly affects our marine environment, and I hope you'll consider getting out in that environment, tomorrow, in celebration of Earth Day, and to help in a practical way in efforts to protect and preserve the natural environment, here in our spectacular Monterey Bay Region.

There are lots of opportunities to do that, so celebrate Earth Day, wherever you live around the Bay.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton's Two Worlds Blog
• Earth Day Network Website
• Earth Day 2014 - Santa Cruz
• Earth Day 2014 - Salinas
• List of Earth Day 2014 Events in Monterey County
• Save Our Shores Earth Day 2014 Events
• Earth Day 2014 Celebration Flyer
• Save Our Shores Website
• ALBA Website