The KUSP Land Use Report #23: Regional Issues In Land Use Decision Making

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The following Land Use Report is presented by Gary Patton, Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of our sponsors.

Under state law, land use decisions are made at the "local" level. "Regional" effects, however, increasingly dominate the context in which local decisions are made.

The most important factors influencing land use in both Santa Cruz and Monterey County tend to come from decisions made by business and governmental entities in the Silicon Valley, outside the local area. That makes it hard for local land use decisions to deal with the "equity" issues around the Monterey Bay. No matter how many houses get built in Santa Cruz or Monterey County, the "market" for those houses is dominated by buyers from outside the local area, with incomes higher than those prevailing here. Building lots of housing doesn’t automatically meet social equity goals.

One response to this critical problem is to try a more "regional" approach. That can produce some positive results, but until state law changes, "regional" planning will always be limited, because it’s an all-volunteer system. Santa Clara County jurisdictions can help, if they want to, but they don’t have to. Another approach is to adopt local land use policies with regional impacts in mind. That approach can produce real results, and finding the way to do that effectively is the greatest land use policy challenge facing the local communities of Monterey and Santa Cruz County.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

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