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Listen to the reports each weekday at 6:49 am & 8:49 am To suggest a topic for a future land use report, or to convey a comment, please use this link. |
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Reports
The following Land Use Reports have been presented on KUSP by Gary Patton, Executive Director of The Planning and Conservation League. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of its sponsors. |
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Monday, January 30, 2006 – Next Steps For The General Plan Initiative The tools of direct democracy made part of our state Constitution include the referendum, recall, and the initiative. Last Monday, I noted that Monterey County voters had taken action through the referendum process to place the proposed development of Rancho San Juan on the ballot. In fact, they’ve had to do this twice. In the first instance, a successful referendum campaign led to a vote last November, but before the vote could even be held, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors (with Supervisor David Potter dissenting) voted to approve a modified version of the Rancho San Juan project. This attempt to avoid the right of the voters to have their say did not succeed, since the voters immediately qualified a second referendum. Tomorrow, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will consider an initiative measure that would enact new General Plan policies. The Board will hear that enough signatures have been collected to qualify the initiative for the ballot, and ultimately, the Board will have to take action either to place this initiative before the voters or to enact it themselves. Tomorrow, though, there is a third option available, which is to order a “report” on the effects of the initiative. My bet is that the Board will choose this option, and if you’d like to mark your calendars ahead, plan to attend the meeting on Tuesday, February 28th, the date that this report will probably be considered by the Board. More Information: KUSP Radio covers the Central Coast, with a radio signal available in portions, at least, of San Luis Obispo County. There is lots of land use activity there, and I’d like to alert you to a couple of items coming up for action today and tomorrow. Today, the City of Pismo Beach will conduct a “Workshop on Secondary Dwelling Units.” Because this is a “workshop” session, no final action will be taken, but an informative discussion can be predicted. One way to provide more “affordable” housing for persons with average and below average incomes is to permit the construction of “secondary dwelling units” on single family lots. These are sometimes called “Granny Units,” or “Mother in Law Units,” but the more generic description is probably better. In fact, depending on how the local ordinances are structured, secondary units can be rented to anyone, and thus provide new housing opportunities. They do, however, have neighborhood and other impacts. If you are a resident of Pismo Beach, or want to study an important land use issue, the workshop this afternoon, at 4:30, is worth attending. Tomorrow, The San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District will hold a workshop on its air pollution grant programs. The District will spend about $2.5 million dollars this year on projects to cut down air pollution, and those funds provide a real opportunity to create innovative land use solutions to our air pollution problems. More Information: I’ve reported in the past on proposed timber harvesting activities that would impact Lompico Creek. Lompico is a relatively remote residential community, tucked away in the watershed of the San Lorenzo River. The community’s water supply is pretty much entirely dependent on Lompico Creek, and the watershed of this creek is quite fragile, since the soils in the area are highly erodible. In fact, Santa Cruz City residents see a lot of sediment in the San Lorenzo River, downtown, that probably came from Lompico Creek. Timber harvesting in this kind of delicate environment can cause some terrible environmental problems. In terms of land use planning (and the state’s timber harvest regulations don’t relate very directly to land use concerns) this is not an area where aggressive soil-disturbing activities should be encouraged. Well, thanks to the Sempervirens Fund, which has been preserving redwood forests in Santa Cruz County since 1900, there is some great news for Lompico today! The Sempervirens Fund has purchased an option to acquire the Lompico Headwaters forest, thus protecting the watershed that provides domestic water to 1,500 Lompico residents. The Sempervirens Fund has a deadline of June 30th to raise the $5.5 million dollars needed to execute the option. You can definitely help! Get more information at www.kusp.org. For KUSP, this is Gary Patton. More Information: “Inclusionary housing programs” require that housing for all income segments be “included” in any new residential development. Santa Cruz County has had such a program since early 1979, as a result of Measure J, Santa Cruz County’s innovative growth management program, adopted by the voters in June 1978. Inclusionary housing programs require that some percentage of new housing be removed from the private “market,” since the effect of letting the market set housing prices is to make it virtually impossible for average and below average income persons to afford to purchase a home. Here’s the question: if an inclusionary housing unit is created, and we require, as a matter of community policy, that it be sold at a below market price (so that lower income persons can afford it) how long should that affordability requirement remain? In Santa Cruz County, and in Monterey County, currently, affordable units must always be resold at an affordable price. Monterey County is thinking about changing that rule, so the purchasers of affordable housing, which the community has required be sold to them at a below market price, can turn around and sell their house at the market price, after a certain time. You can say, “bye, bye affordable housing” if that’s allowed. If you want to weigh in on this incredibly important issue, there is a meeting tomorrow that you should attend. More Information The Monterey County Planning Commission has established a “Subcommittee on Inclusionary Housing,” which is scheduled to meet on Friday, February 3, 2006, at 9:00 a.m. at the Monterey County Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, 168 West Alisal Street, Salinas. Contact Jerry Hernandez or Marti Noel at 831-755-5390 for more information. Friday, February 3, 2006 – More on Logging and “Google Earth”If you have broadband access to the internet, and a good graphics card in your computer, you can get an extremely good picture of what a typical logging proposal might actually mean on the ground. And all without having to leave your home or office! At a recent meeting of the South Skyline Association, the “neighborhood association” of people living at the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains, right where Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz Counties meet, I heard (and what’s more important, I “saw”) how new mapping technologies can provide a vivid picture of what logging might really mean for a watershed. You can then access a truly spectacular presentation created by the Mountain Resource Group, which has been created to “inform and empower Santa Cruz Mountain residents in order to manage mountain resources wisely.” Their website contains an extremely powerful presentation, created in Google Earth, which dramatically shows the effects of a proposed 1,000 acre timber harvest. This is really a “show” not to be missed. Check out a powerful tool that can be used by almost anyone to begin to bring the power of modern technology to the citizen participation process, so that those concerned about land use can better hold their own when the “experts” say that “all is well.” For KUSP, this is Gary Patton. More Information Mountain Resource Group – www.mountainresource.org NOTE: To view the logging presentation you must download a “Google Earth” software viewer (which can be downloaded for free), but this software does require a broadband internet connection and a higher quality “graphics card” than will be found on some computers. If you do have a modern computer and a broadband connection, this program will really impress you!
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