Long time listeners will remember that I often prod you all to get yourselves outdoors, and to experience directly the natural environment we are so privileged to inhabit. Land use policy and project decisions definitely affect our future, and very notably affect our relationship with the natural environment. Nature is not a “concept,” though; it’s a living reality, and today I have a mini book review in connection with my often-repeated advice to “Step Into Nature.”

Step Into Nature, in fact, is the title of a recently published book by Monterey artist and poet Patrice Vecchione. Check out kusp.org/landuse for more information. I wish I had known about this event in time to give you an advance warning, but Patrice Vecchione led a “Step Into Nature” benefit for Elkhorn Slough last Saturday. How about a combination Nature Walk and Writer’s Workshop to benefit the Slough? Wonderful! But that was last Saturday. I bet there will be other opportunities in the future. In the meantime, read this book!

As the “Introduction” advises, each chapter of Step Into Nature contains items for inspiration and inquiry, plus suggestions, activities, and resources. “Step Into Nature!” That’s great advice. And I won’t let you forget about all those meetings, either, where the policies are forged that will either protect Nature or destroy it.

More Information

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Step Into Nature
• The Patrice Vecchione Facebook Page
• Girlhood And A Santa Cruz Discovery
  
  
• Upcoming Events With Patrice Vecchione:
• July 11: Carmel Valley Library Collage Workshop For Teens (831-883-7542)
• July 18: Carmel Valley Library Poetry Workshop (831-883-7542)
• July 19: Davenport Step Into Nature Reading & Workshop (Davenport General Store, 11 a.m.)

The Santa Cruz City Council meets today, and there are a number of interesting items on the agenda. Some of them are going to be discussed in a “closed session,” meaning that the public won’t know exactly what’s going on, just that something is going on. Specifically, the Council is going to discuss a proposed “Pacific Station” development project, involving the sale or other disposition of city-owned property on Laurel and Front Streets.

At 1:00 p.m., on its Consent Agenda, the Council will address emergency funding for the Homeless Services Center, and proposed amendments to the contract that the City has with the Downtown Management Corporation. Those items might even be connected, since the closure of the Homeless Services Center will definitely have a big impact in downtown Santa Cruz. The Council is also planning to take final action on its 2016 fiscal year budget, and to adopt an extension of the Cowell Beach/Wharf public access policy, and to authorize negotiations with Santa Cruz Shakespeare for the use of an area in Upper DeLaveaga Park for a summer theatre series beginning in 2016. Consent Agenda items are not acted upon behind closed doors, but they are usually not discussed, either. Not unless someone asks for discussion.

On the regular agenda, there may be some discussion of a “Corridor Planning Process and Rezoning Update.” Discussion of a “paddling program” on the San Lorenzo River is definitely scheduled.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• June 23, 2015 City Council Agenda

Residents on the Monterey Peninsula are not only affected by the current drought, as everyone is; they are also affected by an order directed to the California American Water Company, requiring Cal-Am to stop taking over 7,000 acre feet of water per year from the Carmel River. Cal-Am’s response to the need to come up with an alternative water supply has been called the “Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.” The proposal is to pump seawater from a “slant well” located near Marina, and then to desalinate that water to produce a fresh water supply.

Today, at 2:30 p.m., in the Conference Room of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, the so-called “Governance Committee” for the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply project is going to be evaluating the project’s status. Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett is the Chair of the “Governance Committee,” but the word “governance,” is just a bit of a stretch. Cal-Am is a private corporation, regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, so there is no direct local government control over that corporation or over the water supply project. Given an opportunity to put themselves in direct control, Peninsula voters opted to stick with the private corporation.

Recent reports indicate that there has been some sort of problem with the test slant well that Cal-Am drilled to prove the concept of its proposed project. Today’s meeting might be revealing of what’s in store for the future for the Peninsula’s water supply.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• State Water Resources Control Board Order WR 2009-0060
• Coast Weekly Article On Slant Well Problems
• June 24, 2015 Agenda of Governance Committee
• Governance Committee Website
• MPWSP Website

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission is holding a “Special Meeting” at 9:00 o’clock this morning. There are only a few items on the Regular Agenda, so my bet is that the “big item” for this “special meeting” is a proposal that the Commission sue somebody, and any discussion about that will take place behind closed doors.

You may remember that the Santa Cruz City Council held a “closed session” during the Council’s meeting on Tuesday. In that case, members of the public at least knew that the Council would be discussing the possible sale or other disposition of city-owned property, presumably to facilitate a development project called “Pacific Station.” In the case of the Commission’s closed session scheduled for this morning, here is all we’re being told:

CLOSED SESSION
Conference with legal counsel – anticipated litigation. Initiation of Litigation pursuant to paragraph (4) of subdivision (b) of Section 54956.9 of the Government Code: one case.

I have put a link to the Ralph M. Brown Act in today’s transcript. It is the Brown Act that sets up the rules for closed sessions. The Commission’s agenda clearly contains a typo, because the cited code section does not exist. There is a paragraph (4) of subdivision (d), though, and it doesn’t require the Commission to say anything about what this litigation might be about. Could it be about the rail line? That would be my guess. So far, it’s a big secret!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Transportation Commission Agenda – Special Meeting of June 25, 2015
• Ralph M. Brown Act

How often do you think about salt and nutrient management? I bet you don’t think about that topic very often. Would I be wrong to say you have never thought about it?

If you are a farmer with lands within the boundaries of the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency, or PVWMA, which includes areas in both South Santa Cruz County and North Monterey County, I bet you have done at least some thinking about salt and nutrient management. The Agency has definitely been doing some thinking about that topic, because virtually all the water delivered within the boundaries of the PVWMA comes from groundwater resources. That includes not only agricultural water, but also the water that makes life possible for the residents and businesses located in the City of Watsonville, and in Pajaro, and in other rural areas within the District’s boundaries. The quality of our groundwater can be profoundly degraded if we don’t stop groundwater contamination by the excessive leaching of salts, and by nutrients that leach into our groundwater after fertilizers are applied to agricultural fields.

On July 2nd, that’s Thursday next week, there will be a Salt and Nutrient Management Plan Stakeholder Workshop. The Workshop will be held at 10:00 a.m. in the PVWMA Water Resources Center Conference Room, 500 Clearwater Lane in Watsonville. There is a lot more information in today’s transcript at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency Website
• Salt/Nutrient Management Plan Committee