At 6:00 p.m. tomorrow evening, the Watsonville Planning Commission will make a decision that could have a big impact on future development within the city. The key question is whether development in the City can be excused from the City’s agricultural buffer policies. There is more information at kusp.org/landuse.

The City’s General Plan, its "Constitution for land use," requires a 200-foot agricultural "buffer" between new development and surrounding agricultural land. This policy benefits both the agricultural industry and those who may live, work, or visit within developments located close to agricultural land. Agricultural operations can impact adjacent properties with pesticides, dust, and noise, and if a buffer is not provided, the lack of such a buffer can render nearby agricultural lands unusable for agriculture.

The City’s planning staff wants the Commission to reduce the required buffer, to allow a major visitor serving development on lands located adjacent to Highway One. The developer knew about the buffer policy but has chosen to design a project that ignores it. Is that the message you think the City should be sending to developers: "Hey, if you don’t like our policies, we’ll just change those policies at your request?"

If you care, you’d better get involved now.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Watsonville Planning Commission Webpage
• Agenda, April 5, 2016 Planning Commission Agenda

Water, land use, and transportation all go together. At least, they should!!

When development decisions ignore the availability of adequate water resources, long term community impacts can be severe, and necessary corrections can be costly. The Monterey Peninsula is certainly finding that out!

This rule applies to transportation, too. If developments are approved without properly accounting for their traffic impacts, the community ends up with gridlock. The state of Highway One in Santa Cruz County is a good example. It’s not so easy to escape from gridlock, once overdevelopment has created it, and corrections there are very costly, too.

Providing robust transit services is one way to mitigate the transportation impact of development. Getting people to take transit significantly reduces the traffic congestion caused by everyone trying to get around in an individual vehicle. But what happens when transit mitigation measures are cut back or eliminated? That is the question that the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission will be wrestling with tomorrow.

The Transit District is making big service reductions because the District doesn’t have enough money to maintain existing bus routes. The City of Santa Cruz is concerned. If bus service is removed from major transportation corridors, there will be a lot more gridlock in the City of Santa Cruz, and on Highway One.

Get more information at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• SCCRTC April 7, 2016 Agenda Packet
• Santa Cruz City Council Resolution on Bus Service Reductions
• Santa Cruz City Council Agenda Memo on Bus Service Reductions

Density is desirable......unless it isn’t!

On Wednesday, I noted that the City of Santa Cruz is concerned about the possible reduction of bus service along major transit corridors. City streets are already at gridlock, or close, and if existing bus service is reduced, things will get worse. The Transit District has real budget problems, and service cuts of some kind are definitely coming. The City’s concern about bus service, however, seems mainly motivated by a concern about future development plans, as much as by any concern that the impacts of past development will be made worse.

The City is in the middle of a planning process that proposes vastly to increase the density of development along Mission Street, Ocean Street, Soquel Avenue, and Water Street. Dense, high-rise residential developments will be built if the City’s proposed "Corridors Plan" is ultimately approved, and the City’s consultants think that the traffic impacts of such new development would be mitigated by robust transit services along these major corridors. That is quite debatable, but there seems little doubt that there will be a traffic congestion disaster if the City’s "Corridor Plan" is approved and implemented at a time when there is cutback of transit along these streets.

City residents should be involved in this planning process. Go to kusp.org/landuse for more information.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• City Corridors Plan Website
• White Paper – Parking on the Corridors
• Corridors Planning Presentation – February 29, 2016
• Santa Cruz City Council Resolution on Bus Service Reductions
• Santa Cruz City Council Agenda Memo on Bus Service Reductions
• Public Communication to Council- Bus Service on Water Street

Commercial pot cultivation could change land use in Santa Cruz County.

There is probably a lot of sympathy in the general public for a system that would allow for the commercial cultivation of cannabis in Santa Cruz County. I also bet that members of the general public haven’t done much thinking about how such a general sentiment of approval might translate into new land use regulations, and what that would actually mean.

To help it consider the options, the Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz County has established the so-called "C4 Committee," charged by the Board with trying to find a common sense and consensus solution that will be satisfactory to those who favor commercial cannabis cultivation, and to those who are worried about the impacts. That "C4" namesake, by the way, comes from the official name of the Committee, the "Cannabis Cultivation Choices Committee."

The Committee is getting close to releasing its final recommendations, and if you care about the issue, my advice is to contact your representative on the Board, and ask to learn what’s being proposed, and what it could mean to you. From what I can gather, the recommendations coming from the Committee will be along the lines of "cannabis cultivation: everywhere and aways!" That may be a bit overdramatic, but it’s time for the public to get involved, from Day Valley to Bonny Doon. Check the links at kusp.org/landuse.

More Information:

• Land Use Links
• Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog
• Cannabis Cultivation Choices Committee Website