Today, there are important meetings about water on both sides of the Bay.

At 10:30 on this Monday morning, the Technical Advisory Committee of the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority is holding a meeting in the Monterey City Hall. Among other things, the Committee is going to be focusing on the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project. This is the proposed Cal-Am desalination project that would, if and when actually permitted and constructed, provide a significant new water supply, and allow Cal-Am to comply with the State Water Board Order that requires a reduction in pumping from the Carmel River. Obviously, this is a pretty important topic!

This evening, at 7:00 o’clock, the City of Santa Cruz Water Commission will be talking about the City’s major water supply project, and making recommendations for how best to move ahead with that project, which is a truly ambitious effort that aims at regional cooperation, and that emphatically does not include desalination. This month’s Water Commission meeting will lay out the path for pursuing the City’s preferred project. Water activists are likely to be out in force, and you are invited, too!

As usual, I have links to more information at kusp.org/landuse. I hope you will get involved. Water is pretty much our top priority around here, even with those weekend rains!

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Agenda - March 7, 2016 Water Commission Meeting
• Agenda - Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority Technical Advisory Committee

I want to tell you about two important meetings that are coming right up.

This evening, on Wednesday, March 9th, the Monterey County Housing Advisory Committee will be meeting from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Monterey County Governmental Center. The proposed Rancho Cañada Village project is on the agenda. This is a big project, proposed for Carmel Valley, and the Housing Advisory Committee is going to be focusing on the affordable housing aspects. If you care about the project’s impacts on Carmel Valley, or if you care about affordable housing in general, this would be a good meeting not to miss!

Tomorrow, on Thursday, March 10th, the Project Development Advisory Committee of Monterey Bay Community Power will meet from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the offices of the Monterey Regional Waste Management District, located at 14201 Del Monte Boulevard in Marina. The focus of this meeting is a recently-prepared study on the technical aspects of “Community Choice Aggregation,” which is a way for our region to obtain what is called “green power,” or sustainable power, to replace power produced from the combustion of fossil fuels.

Global warming is no joke. It threatens the continued existence of our local communities in multiple ways, and finding out how to produce the electric power we need, without adding more CO2 to the atmosphere is a very important objective.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Monterey County HAC Website
• Monterey Bay Community Power Website
• One-Pager on Community Choice Aggregation
• DRAFT Monterey Bay Community Power Technical Study
• For more information on CCA contact: Gine Johnson (831) 454-2200

A local newspaper columnist is calling for a revolution at City Hall.

Jeff Mitchell writes a “Civic Chronicles” column for the Salinas Californian. In his column on March 4th, Mitchell addresses “Millennials,” those who are between eighteen and thirty-four years of age right now, and his message is nothing less than a call for a civic “revolución,” using the Spanish spelling. That’s “revolution” to the English-only speakers.

Exactly what, specifically, is Mitchell calling for, by way of this revolution? Well, it’s not guns! That’s some good news. In fact, the civic revolution that Mitchell would like to see is to have millennials “start participating in local government and community affairs.”

Now, there is a message I can definitely endorse. In fact, long time listeners know that I’ve been advocating just this kind of revolution for a very long time, and Jeff Mitchell is absolutely right: civic engagement can have truly revolutionary impacts. There is a Presidential candidate, in fact, who seems to be saying the very same thing.

Jeff Mitchell is asking interested persons to contact him, so they can get an invitation to attend a March 16th workshop on how to obtain access to public records. I hope Millennials and others will take him up on this offer. Listeners can get links to more information at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Jeff Mitchell Column in the Salinas Californian
• Contact Jeff Mitchell For An Invitation To A March 16th Workshop on Public Records

Let’s talk about a really big development project.

Earlier this week, I mentioned the proposed Rancho Cañada Village project, a sizable development proposed for Carmel Valley. Today, let me alert you to a project that a certain Presidential candidate might well call HUGE! I am speaking of course, of the proposed Monterey Downs mega-development, which would be located on property that is now under the jurisdiction of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, but which would be developed, if the project ever does go ahead, by the City of Seaside.

Last week, the Seaside City Council considered an economic study that revealed, essentially for the first time, that the developer proposes that a state agency operate a major horse racing facility in Seaside, equivalent to the Del Mar racetrack, which is located in San Diego County. I have a link to the Del Mar Racetrack website in today’s blog, which you can view at kusp.org/landuse.

If you are enthused about a major race track development on the Peninsula, or if you are appalled by the idea, and I imagine that there are listeners on both sides of this question, the time to get involved is now. LandWatch Monterey County, which follows major development projects and gets involved in land use policy issues, has lots of information on its website. The developers and the City do, too.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Monterey County Weekly Article on Monterey Downs
• City of Seaside Monterey Downs Website
• Monterey Down Developers’ Website
• LandWatch Monterey County Summary of Monterey Downs Project
• Del Mar Racetrack Website