Boards of Supervisors have broad land use authority, and they meet on Tuesdays. I have checked the agendas of both the Monterey County and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, and I can report that tomorrow there are land use items on both agendas. Not too much is happening in Monterey County, but there is going to be a hearing on traffic volumes on Carmel Valley Road. Lots of people care about that.

In Santa Cruz County, the Board will be taking action on a number of land use issues. Agenda Item #47 is about vacation rentals. Again, the discussion tomorrow is taking place before the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. Vacation rentals are an important issue on both sides of the Bay. Item #48 is a hearing on proposed changes to the County’s affordable housing rules. The hearing is scheduled, and you can talk, but the County Administrative Officer wants the Board to delay any action until February 10th. Affordable housing advocates are afraid that the County might scrap the requirement that affordable housing actually be built, as market rate developments are approved.

At 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, the Board will discuss regulations governing the growing of medical marijuana. If you’d like to get a feeling for other topics, look through Consent Agenda Items #30 to #44. Lots of land use items appear on that Consent Agenda. Get links to the agendas at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Santa Cruz County Board Agenda – January 27, 2015
• Monterey County Board Agenda Website
• Agenda Item #47 – Vacation Rentals
• Agenda Item #48 – Affordable Housing

The City of Santa Cruz City Council meets this afternoon and this evening. Customers of the City’s Water Department might want to check out the agenda, and many of these customers live outside City limits. If you live in Pasatiempo, or Live Oak, or even in parts of the City of Capitola, you get your water from the City of Santa Cruz. Out of City customers can’t vote on the people who make the decisions, but they are bound by the decisions nonetheless.

Tomorrow, at 7:00 p.m., after a public hearing on increased garbage collection fees (those are called “resource recovery” fees, nowadays), the Council is going to receive a report from its Water Supply Advisory Committee. This group was set up by the Council to reassess the City’s plans about how best to provide a reliable and adequate water supply, going forward. In setting up this advisory group, the Council specifically said it wanted to “reset” the discussion about future water supply options, since the one and only plan that had been pursued by the City Water Department was a proposed desalination project, a project that was hugely costly, environmentally damaging, and fiercely opposed by many in the community.

Today’s blog has a link to a 164-page report on water supply options. You can find that link at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Santa Cruz City Council Agenda – January 27, 2015
• WSAC Phase #1 Report

The Transportation Agency For Monterey County is scheduled to meet this morning. TAMC, as it is best known, will be meeting in the Agricultural Center Conference Room, located at 1428 Abbott Street in Salinas. On the agenda will be a ceremony, at 9:30, recognizing the Monterey County Mobility Coalition, which will be receiving TAMC’s 2015 Transportation Excellence Award. LandWatch Monterey County, which obviously focuses on land use issues, was part of that Mobility Coalition. That is another demonstration, I think, of how closely transportation and land use issues are intertwined.

This evening, I have another meeting to recommend. The City of Watsonville is sponsoring a free event to inform residents and other interested persons about the regulations that govern cell towers. Cell towers are often controversial, and local governments have the right to say “yes” or “no” to applications to build cell towers. Local government powers are limited by regulations issued by the Federal Communications Commission (or FCC), but it’s not true, as some people think, that local governments don’t have any powers at all. If you want to learn more about cell tower regulations, the meting this evening is from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., on the fourth floor of the Watsonville Civic Plaza, in Community Rooms A and B. I think this will be an informative meeting.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• TAMC Website

I follow local government and land use issues around the Monterey Bay, but I also pay attention to what is going on elsewhere. Today, let me report on a rule recently adopted by the Palo Alto City Council. I think that the Palo Alto City Council has a good idea. Residents in the Monterey Bay Region might want to ask their own elected representatives to adopt a similar rule.

As listeners probably know, the Ralph M. Brown Act requires that all local government decision making take place in public. That requirement is critically important, if we want citizens to know what their government is actually doing. The Brown Act, however, does have some exceptions, and Boards and Councils are allowed to go into “closed sessions,” where the public is excluded, to address litigation, property negotiations, and personnel matters. A listing of what will be discussed is placed on the agenda for the public to see.

Just because local governments “may” go into closed sessions, however, doesn’t mean that they have to, or even that they should. In Palo Alto, a new rule requires an official vote of the Council before the Council goes into a closed session. That means that a decision to exclude the public is, itself, a matter for public discussion and decision. It’s not taken for granted.

Check out the link in today’s Land Use Report blog, at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Ralph M. Brown Act
• League of Cities Guide to the Brown Act
• Palo Alto Online – Article on New Closed Session Rules

Once in a while I present items here on the Land Use Report that are mostly of interest to land use “professionals.” My main objective in presenting the Land Use Report, of course, is not to speak to “professionals,” but to stimulate more general public engagement in land use issues of various kinds. Land use policy and project decisions have a big impact on our future, and you don’t have to be a “professional” to understand what’s going on, and to make a real difference with respect to local government land use decisions.

But let’s not discount the role that “professionals” play. Planners, consultants, lawyers, and others are engaged in land use policy and project matters as their “job.” Particularly when we think of local government planning staff, we all have a stake in making sure that planning professionals are well educated and up to date on the latest information in their field.

To that end, let me alert planning “professionals,” and others in the audience, that the Central Coast Joint Data Committee is promoting a course at Monterey Peninsula College. A link to information about the course on can be found at kusp.org/landuse. The course is called “GIS, GPS and Cartography,” and it’s being offered during Spring Quarter. Who knows, maybe even some “non-professional” listeners might be interested in learning how to do sophisticated mapping using modern technology!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Course Description and Registration
• Central Coast Joint Data Committee
• Monterey Peninsula College
• MPC Course Catalogue
• Course Information – OCEN 10