These Land Use Reports are prerecorded, and as of the time I am recording today’s Report, the so-called "Valley Fire," in Lake County, has burned 74,500 acres and is 48% contained. The "Butte Fire," located east of Jackson, California, has burned 70,760 acres and is 65% contained. If you’d like to get some more information on these, or other wildfires, I have a link to the CalFire website, providing incident information, at kusp.org/landuse.

While the fires I just mentioned are not directly affecting our Monterey Bay Region, they remind us, or should remind us, of our own vulnerability to the kind of horrific wildfires that have been raging throughout the state this year. Fire protection is a major issue for the residents of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and today, the Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, is addressing a related issue during the LAFCO meeting scheduled for this afternoon at 4:00 o’clock.

A public hearing, continued from the Commission’s June 2015 meeting, will address fire protection in South Monterey County, and a proposed 123 square mile annexation to the South Monterey County Fire Protection District. Check today’s transcript if you are interested!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Monterey County LAFCO Website
• LAFCO Agenda Packet, September 21 2015 Meeting
• CalFire Current Fire Information

Lots of listeners visit downtown Santa Cruz. This Thursday, September 24th, the City of Santa Cruz Downtown Commission is holding its regular meeting at 8:30 a.m. in the City Council Chambers. Of course, all members of the public are definitely invited to be there. I have a link to the agenda at kusp.org/landuse.

The Commission is going to be discussing turning one of the City’s unpaid parking lots, the one located at the intersection of Front and Cathcart Streets, into a "paid parking" facility. Some downtown visitors or shoppers may care about that.

Most interesting to me, however, is an informational item, listed as Agenda Item #5 on the Thursday agenda. The brief memo that has been provided to Commission members indicates that City Councilmember Richelle Noroyan will be sponsoring a Pacific Avenue One-Way Traffic Project that will be presented to the City Council by the City’s Public Works and Economic Development Departments during the September 29, 2015 City Council meeting.

The proposal is to convert a one-block segment between Walnut Avenue and Lincoln Street to the opposite direction, and to convert a three-block segment between Church Street and Cathcart Street to a continuous one-way southbound direction. If approved by the Council, the proposed construction date is after the first of the year in 2016.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Downtown Commission Agenda – September 24, 2015
• Staff Report To Downtown Commission

The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency, or PVWMA, is charged with finding a solution to the groundwater overdraft conditions that exist in North Monterey County, and in South Santa Cruz County. It is hard to imagine a more important responsibility. Among other things, the future of agriculture in Santa Cruz County will be profoundly affected by the success, or not, of the PVWMA.

The Agency has a plan for how to accomplish the task! If you’d like to read up on that plan, I have a link in today’s Land Use Report blog. There is also a link to the agenda of today’s Board of Directors meeting. That meeting will take place at 5:30 this afternoon in the Watsonville City Council Chambers.

On this afternoon’s agenda is a discussion of plans to transform College Lake into a facility that will help recharge the groundwater basin that serves both South Santa Cruz County and North Monterey County. As I have said, solving the problem is critically important, but I imagine that there are going to be some objections to the College Lake proposal, since significant changes are almost always controversial!

In this case, the idea is to increase the storage capacity of College Lake, by inundating some adjacent agricultural lands. Check today’s transcript if you would like to read up on this proposal, which is the largest single component of the Agency’s overall plan for basin recovery.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• PVWMA Website
• PVWMA Board of Directors’ Agenda
• Basin Management Plan

Last Thursday, the City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission held an important public hearing, and voted to support a proposed development at 1800 Soquel Avenue, consisting of two three-story mixed use buildings. The site is located at the corner of Soquel Avenue and Hagemann Avenue, right across the street from Walgreens, for those who know the Soquel Avenue corridor, and who would like to be able to picture exactly where the development would be.

An article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel called the proposed project "controversial." The meeting took four hours, and the Sentinel says that two dozen speakers expressed concerns, with both traffic and parking being the big issues. The "Nextdoor" online bulletin board for the Eastside/Branciforte neighborhood carried a report from a resident who attended the meeting. That person said that the Commission’s logic was that <quote> "if they make parking bad enough, people will be forced to use other transportation." The commenter made clear that he wasn’t advocating that approach, only reporting what he had heard from the Commission.

The project still has to go before the City Council, so if you care, you can still weigh in. In addition, this project is a good example of what the City is planning for the Soquel Avenue, Water Street, Mission Street, and Ocean Street corridors. As I’ve reported before, a planning process is underway. Plans govern specific projects, so get involved early, not late!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Staff Report, 1800 Soquel Project
• Sentinel Article On 1800 Soquel Project
• Google Maps Street View Of The Site
• Santa Cruz Corridor Planning Process Website

The "dog fight" about the proposed Carmel Canine Sports Center is apparently not over yet. The project was unanimously approved by the Monterey County Planning Commission, but project opponents have appealed that approval, and according to the Carmel Pine Cone, that appeal will go before the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on October 20th.

The attorney representing the Friends of Quail, one group that has officially appealed to the Board, is contending that the Planning Commission hearing was not "fair or impartial," that the project’s Environmental Impact Report was flawed, and that the proposed sports center would have unmitigated and significant impacts on wildlife.

One of the interesting things about this particular land use controversy is that the project is not only being opposed by the neighbors, this being pretty typical, but by an adjacent business property, Quail Lodge. Attorney Tony Lombardo is representing Quail Lodge, and he is usually on the "pro" side where development proposals are concerned.

Both neighborhood opponents and Quail Lodge believe that the canine sports center would increase traffic and noise, with particular objections to a plan to host up to 24 special-event days a year, and to bring in as many 70 RVs and 250 people at a time.

The appeal was taken in stride by the project proponents. If you want to weigh in, you might want to mark your calendar for October 20th.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Carmel Canine Sports Center – County Planning Information
• Carmel Pine Cone – September 18-24, 2015 Edition
• Carmel Valley Association Weekly Bulletin