The Santa Cruz City Water Commission is meeting this evening. In case you’ve been out of the country for the past several years, let me advise you that “water” issues are a big topic in Santa Cruz. Not only are there immediate problems, associated with the drought that is affecting all of California, the City of Santa Cruz is trying to develop a workable, longer term vision for water supply for the entirety of the City’s Water Service Area. That includes all of Live Oak, some of the City of Capitola, Pasatiempo, and portions of the Santa Cruz County North Coast. Of course, it also includes the entire City of Santa Cruz and the developed portion of UCSC, too.

You’ve heard this pitch before: if you care, be there! Get involved in helping to formulate the water policy that will have such a major impact on the future of our local community. You could start getting involved by attending the meeting of the City Water Commission tonight. Starting at 7:00 o’clock, in the City Council Chambers, the Commission will be talking about fish flows in the San Lorenzo River and North Coast streams, and the Commission will also be talking about money. Agenda Item #3 is an examination of the Water Department’s Financial Model. That model will impact your pocketbook. Check out the Commission’s agenda packet below. And think about attending that meeting tonight!

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Santa Cruz City Water Commission Agenda Packet

A few weeks ago, reporting on a LAFCO meeting, I noted that the City of Salinas is planning mammoth growth onto surrounding agricultural lands. If you are a Salinas resident, you might want to consider attending the Salinas City Council meeting at 4:00 o’clock this afternoon. Among other things, the Council will consider an ordinance to provide reimbursement to the City for the costs incurred in annexing and entitling lands in the North of Boronda Future Growth Area. You can obtain a copy of the staff report on this item by using a link to the Council agenda, available at kusp.org/landuse. The plan is for Salinas to annex and develop about 2,400 acres of land, turning what is largely agricultural land into subdivisions and shopping centers.

I anticipate that there will be a good number of people at the Council meeting this afternoon who are concerned about the way the Salinas police have been discharging their law enforcement obligations. There is significant evidence that the kind of massive residential growth that has been experienced in Salinas, and that is proposed to continue, can have a real impact on local law enforcement.

For Santa Cruz County residents, there is a meeting tonight, at 7:00 o’clock, at the Main Street Elementary School in Soquel, to discuss sustainable transportation plans. A whole schedule of meetings is available in today’s transcript!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Agenda, Salinas City Council – June 3, 2014
• Sustainable Santa Cruz County Meeting Schedule

For those concerned about fracking, there is good news and bad news. “Fracking” is a shorthand expression for “hydraulic fracturing,” a technique for producing oil and gas from geologic strata in which hydrocarbon resources are tightly bound in the rock, so that fracturing the rock is necessary to recover the hydrocarbons. Fracking has many potential adverse impacts, including the possibility of a long-term contamination of groundwater aquifers.

At the state level, a bill to impose a statewide moratorium on fracking just failed last week in the State Senate. That’s the “bad news” for those concerned about fracking. On the “good news” side, the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Cruz has taken action to ban fracking in Santa Cruz County. Monterey County residents might want to read the actual resolution that has accomplished this, and then suggest to members of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors that they should consider similar action.

In San Benito County, those concerned about the impacts of fracking have decided to bypass the Board and to take the issue directly to the people. Activists, and particularly a group called San Benito Rising, have qualified an initiative for the November ballot that would impose a fracking ban in that county.

Links to lots of information is available below.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• SB 1132 – The Fracking Moratorium Bill
• Santa Cruz County Anti-Fracking Resolution
• Information on the San Benito County Initiative Ordinance
• San Benito County Ban Fracking Initiative – Official Documents
• San Benito Rising Website

The Santa Cruz City Planning Commission is meeting this evening at 7:00 o’clock in the City Council Chambers. There is really only one item on the agenda. It is an important item, and I want to give KUSP listeners a “heads up.” If you care about affordable housing, or if you are concerned about issues of neighborhood integrity, you might want to attend the meeting tonight. Maybe, you will want simply to listen in, but maybe you would even like to testify.

This evening, the Commission is focusing on proposed amendments to the City’s Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance. This ordinance sets up rules that permit property owners to build second units on their property (under certain conditions, of course) as a way to provide for additional housing opportunities. Some believe that the ADU program, as it is called, has adverse impacts on single-family residential neighborhoods, and undermines neighborhood integrity. More units generally mean there are more cars, and more people, and more neighborhood impacts.

Others, who are supporters of the program, think it has been extremely successful in helping to address (if not completely to eliminate) the housing affordability crisis that so profoundly affects most of our local communities in the Central Coast Region.

The meeting tonight is not your last chance to get involved, but it is a very good chance to start getting engaged. Check below for more information. The stakes on this one really are pretty high.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• City Planning Commission Agenda
• Staff Report on Draft Amendments to the ADU Ordinance
• Existing Municipal Code Provisions – See Section 24.16.150ff

Last week, I attended a couple of meetings in Monterey County, focused on short-term vacation rentals, or “home stays,” as Monterey County calls them. One of the meetings was in the Big Sur Grange Hall, and one was in the Community Room of the Carmel Highlands Fire Station. I was there because I am representing the Monterey County Vacation Rental Coalition, in my capacity as an environmental and land use attorney. The Coalition is hoping that the County will adopt an ordinance allowing property owners to rent their residential properties for short-term vacation rentals. This is a somewhat controversial proposition, since short-term vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods can have neighborhood impacts. The issues are somewhat similar to the “neighborhood integrity” issues involved in the Accessory Dwelling Unit program I mentioned yesterday.

Comments on all sides of the question were heard, and the County staff members were clearly taking notes. As the staff noted, the ideal result would be a “win/win” ordinance, providing enhanced protection to neighborhood residents, while opening up visitor-serving opportunities that will support the local economy. Santa Cruz County has wrestled with the same issue, and it’s generally believed that the Santa Cruz County ordinance does a good job of getting to that “win/win” result.

If you’d like to get involved in the Monterey County discussion, check below for a link to all the current documents.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Monterey County Short Term Rental Website
• Santa Cruz County Vacation Rental Ordinance – See Section 13.10.694