An historic structure at 215 Beach Street in the City of Santa Cruz will go on trial for its life tomorrow evening. That is when the Santa Cruz City Council will consider an application to demolish most of the La Bahia Hotel, to alter what isn’t demolished, and to turn a structure that is currently providing low income rental housing into a hotel serving high-end visitors.

The current application is the latest of several attempts by the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Company to build a new, upscale hotel at 215 Beach Street. Many believe that tearing down the current structure, and replacing it would be a very good thing for the City. Others strongly believe that the current, historic structure is just the right scale for the City and the Beach Area, and should be restored to its former glory. I encourage listeners to join the debate. But be advised: after tomorrow it will be too late.

The La Bahia item will be heard at 7:00 o’clock tomorrow evening. A link to the Council Agenda can be found at kusp.org/land use. Track down Item #1 on the evening agenda, and you will be able to peruse twenty-seven different documents relating to this application.

From the point of view of the opponents, La Bahia is fighting for its life tomorrow evening. From the supporters’ perspective, an old and aging eyesore may finally be eliminated. I invite you to weigh in on what will be very consequential decision.

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Council Agenda – September 9, 2014

I run an informal "Acronym Identification Project," or AIP, and now I have a new one for you. The City of Santa Cruz has established a Water Supply Advisory Committee. The applicable acronym is WSAC. I encourage you to get beyond the acronym, to find out what this relatively new committee is all about. A WSAC "Status Report" is on the City Council agenda today.

The Council formed the WSAC after having received over 400 comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report on its proposed desalination plant. Hillary Bryant, Mayor at the time, called the creation of the Committee a "reset" in the conversation about water policy. One part of the new approach, at least theoretically, is that the City is going to start listening to members of the public, and considering their ideas, instead of just telling the public what the City Council and City staff have already decided is correct. To make this play out in real life, the WSAC will sponsor a "Water Policy Convention," sometime in October. You can register to present your own ideas at that Convention.

On another topic, think about attending a meeting tonight, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Soquel Congregational Church, 4951 Soquel Drive, in Soquel. The meeting will focus on the new groundwater management laws enacted this year, which may have a big impact on local water supply policy.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Council Agenda – September 9, 2014
• WSAC Status Report
• WSAC Website
• Submit Water Policy Strategies for WSAC Convention
• More Information on September 9th Groundwater Meeting

Tonight, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County and other nonprofit conservation groups will present their plan for public access on the 8,500-acre CEMEX property, which the groups have now redesignated as the "San Vicente Redwood Forest." These lands were formerly part of property owned by the CEMEX Company, the cement manufacturer that deactivated its Davenport Cement Plant some years ago. The forest resource lands in question are privately owned, but the private owners are not your typical forest landowners or developers; they are conservation groups whose mission in life is to protect and preserve the natural environment.

I definitely encourage KUSP listeners to attend the meeting tonight. It will be held at the Hotel Paradox, located right next door to the County Governmental Center at 611 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. The meeting is slated to begin at 6:30, and to run until 8:30 this evening. The Land Trust is asking for an online signup. If you will point your browser to kusp.org/landuse, and track down the transcript for today’s Land Use Report, you can find a link to the Meeting Notice and signup page, and get a lot more information on the property in question, and the Draft Public Access Plan, and you can also review the results of an online survey about what sort of access plan members of the public would favor.

Exciting times ahead on the Santa Cruz County North Coast.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Meeting Notice – September 10, 2014 Public Access Meeting
• Land Trust of Santa Cruz County Website
• San Vicente Redwoods Public Access Survey
• DRAFT Access Plan
• Access Maps

Plans to turn California State Highway 156 into a toll road, between Prunedale and Castroville, are rolling right along. This kind of major transformation of one of our local highways is certainly not inevitable, but the Transportation Agency of Monterey County, or TAMC, spurred on by business and visitor-serving interests on the Monterey Peninsula, is definitely promoting this idea. Any transportation agency worth its salt is always looking for money, and TAMC is no exception. Making everyone pay to use a road that is currently open without a toll would definitely generate some hard cash. The idea, of course, is to expand the highway, in connection with the new toll, but the plan includes keeping the toll in place once the highway-widening project is paid off.

There are certainly some legitimate questions about what sort of congestion relief the Highway 156 widening project would actually produce. The conversion of the highway to a toll road just kind of raises the stakes on the proposed project.

To learn more, consider attending the next meeting of the Highway 156 Ad Hoc Committee, a subcommittee of the TAMC Board. The Ad Hoc Committee is meeting a week from today, on Thursday, September 18th, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. at the Andy Ausonio Library Community Room, located at 11160 Speegle Street in Castroville.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Highway 156 Widening Project
• TAMC Website

On Tuesday, I mentioned that the City of Santa Cruz has established a Water Supply Advisory Committee. The purpose of the Committee is "to explore, through an iterative, fact-based process, the City’s water profile, including supply, demand and future threats, and [to] analyze potential solutions to deliver a safe, adequate, reliable and environmentally sustainable water supply, and [to] develop strategy recommendations for City Council consideration."

To carry out this assignment, the Water Supply Advisory Committee is going to host a "Strategies, Ideas, and Alternatives Convention Event" at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium (most likely in October). I want to follow up on a suggestion I made Tuesday, that listeners consider participating in this upcoming event. If you have ideas and alternatives to propose, the Committee says it will take them seriously. Below, I have put a link to some "Guidelines" you should follow in submitting your ideas. Submissions are due on Thursday, September 25th. The Committee wants proposals that would be "effective," and "practical," and that would not have significant negative environmental or community impact.

Listeners should also know that the City is proposing some very large rate increases for all its customers. A public meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, September 17th, at 7:00 p.m. at the Louden Nelson Community Center. Mark your calendar!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• WSAC Status Report
• WSAC Website
• Submit Water Policy Strategies for WSAC Convention