Local Government Meetings
The County Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday, March 26 at 9:00 am in a hybrid meeting at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, 5th Floor, County Government Center, 901 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. Click HERE for the agenda and instructions for public participation. Agenda items include:
Consent Agenda
- 24. Direct the Chair to send a letter to our State legislative representatives urging their support for placing a climate change bond measure on the November 2024 ballot.
- 37. Adopt resolution authorizing grant application submission for California Wildlife Conservation Board Stream Flow Enhancement Program funding to increase capacity of Large Woody Material Management Program, and take related actions.
Regular Agenda
- 9. Consider adopting in concept an “Ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Cruz Repealing and Replacing Santa Cruz County Code Chapter 9.54 Relating to the Regulation of Motorized Bicycles, Motorized Scooters, and Electric Bicycles,” and schedule a second reading and final adoption of the ordinance for April 9, 2024.
- 10. Public hearing to consider Environmental Impact Report (EIR), adopt Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations and Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program, approve the project, permits, and the agreement with Caltrans, for the Coastal Rail Trail Segments 10/11 project, and take related actions.
The County Commission on the Environment will meet Wednesday, March 27 at 5:00 pm at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, 701 Ocean Street, 5th Floor in Santa Cruz. Click HERE for the agenda. Agenda items include:
Business Matters
- V.A. Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) Measurement & Accountability System
The SC City Council will meet Tuesday, March 26 at 12:00 pm in a hybrid meeting at City Council Chambers, 809 Center Street in Santa Cruz. Click HERE for the agenda and instructions for public participation. Agenda items include:
Consent Agenda
- 20. Emergency San Lorenzo River Levee Repair (e602401) – Authorization of Emergency Work
Public Hearings
- 24. 2nd Reading and Final Adoption of Ordinance No. 2024-07 Amending Santa Cruz Municipal Code Chapter 13.12
- 25. Cruz Hotel
- 25.1 302, 310, 314, 322, 324, 326, 328 Front Street: Coastal Permit, Non-Residential Demolition Authorization Permit, Design Permit, Boundary (Lot) Line Adjustments, Special Use Permit, Administrative Use Permit, Additional Height Request, Revocable License for Outdoor Extension Area, and a Heritage Tree Removal Permit, to Demolish a Commercial Building, Combine Five Parcels, and Construct a Six-Story, 232-Room Hotel with Ground Floor Retail, Banquet and Conference Space, Restaurant, and Bar on Property Located within the CBD (Central Business District)/CZ-O (Coastal Zone Overlay)/ SP-O (Shoreline Protection Overlay)/ F-P (Floodplain)/FP-O (Floodplain Overlay) Zone District and within the Front Street/Riverfront Subarea of the Downtown Plan. The Project Requires Approval of a Section 408 Permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers to Allow for the Placement of Fill Between the Levee and the Proposed Building and to Allow for the Development of an Outdoor Extension Area Adjacent to the Riverway Path. The Project Also Includes a Finding that the Sale of the Exempt Surplus Properties is Consistent with the General Plan in Accordance with the Surplus Lands Act. (Environmental Determination: Categorical Exemption, Section 15332). Applicant: SCFS Venture LLC
- 25.2 Consideration of an Option and Purchase Sale Agreement Between the City of Santa Cruz and SCFS Venture LLC for the City-owned Property, Located at 302 and 326 Front Street, North of the Intersection with Laurel Street.
- 28. Proclaiming April 2–8, 2024 as “Dark Sky Week” and encouraging all citizens to join in observing this important week and adopting safe, sensible lighting practices that protect dark sky resources for the benefit of all.
City of Capitola
The Capitola Planning Commission will hold a Special Meeting Wednesday, March 27 at 5:00 pm in a hybrid meeting at City Council Chambers. Click HERE for the agenda and instructions for public participation. Agenda items include:
Public Hearings
- 6.B. 722 Escalona Drive – Tree Removal Permit #24-0105 for the removal of 35 trees, located within the PD (Planned Development) zoning district. This project is in the Coastal Zone but does not require a Coastal Development Permit. Environmental Determination: Categorical Exemption
- 6.C. City Property along Park Avenue – Tree Removal Permit #24-0106 for the removal of 22 trees between Park Avenue and the rail corridor. This project is in the Coastal Zone but does not require a Coastal Development Permit. Environmental Determination: Categorical Exemption
The Capitola City Council will meet Thursday, March 28 at 5:30 pm in a hybrid meeting at Capitola City Council Chambers, 420 Capitola Avenue in Capitola. Click HERE for the agenda and instructions for public participation. Agenda items include:
5:30 pm – Closed Session
6:00 pm – Regular Session
- 7.I. Proposed Expansion of Marine Protected Areas – Authorize the Mayor to sign a letter opposing, unless amended, the petition pending at the California Fish and Game Commission, which modifies the California Marine Protected Areas Network to expand the Natural Bridges State Marine Reserve and establish a new Marine Protected Area at or near Pleasure Point.
Environmental news hereabouts
Salmon fishing season declining in Santa Cruz County
This is a good news/bad news story – good news for the fish, bad news for the fishing industry. Yes, fishers are having a hard time making ends of their lines meet, largely due to global overfishing, ocean floor habitat destruction and increasing pollution of ocean waters. Oh yeah, climate variability, mustn’t forget that, even if it is a natural phenomenon unresponsive to human control. It’s time to get real about human impacts on ocean ecosystems and mend our Ways of living and consuming the Earth, in the ocean and on land.
Commentary
After five years of publishing Santa Cruz Online, I’ve come to the point where I have to express myself about the state of environmentalism and local government bureaucracies and their foibles, hence the revival of Santa Cruz Environmental Review and this Commentary section.
I’ve lived in in Our Fair County for twenty years now, a modest portion of my life that includes the ever present Now. Over these two decades I’ve witnessed a disturbing decline in environmental activism, while development interests have greatly increased their influence on local county and municipal governments.
Of particular concern is the increasing tendency of local governments to willy-nilly cut down and grind up mature trees at every opportunity, throughout the county, regulated (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) and enabled by rarely enforced significant and heritage tree ordinances. I don’t understand what it is about trees that gets under the skin of developers, home owners and county bureaucrats, encouraging them to reach for a chain saw at the drop of a hard hat.
Humans have an historical legacy of tree murder here in our bioregion, that laid waste to the old growth forests that once graced local mountain slopes and watersheds, all for human consumption and pecuniary profit. Though we’ve stopped killing trees on a wholesale level of clear-cutting, we’re still destroying intact forest ecosystems by death of a thousand cuts.
For example, the much touted and vociferously defended Coastal Rail Trail project (see the County Board of Supervisors Agenda Item 10 above) will kill upwards of a thousand or more trees along the railroad right of way, as well as the understory and living soil roundabout, to make way for a fantasy, industrial scale bicycle/pedestrian/electric commuter train. The rational for this hugely destructive project is, of course, Climate Change©, under the assumption that a commuter train would “get people out of their cars” and thus, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, notwthstanding the loss of carbon sequestering trees for generations to come.
*SIGH*
The only response to this madness is “Resist Much, Obey Little.” There are so few of us left aware in this world of “smart” phones, on-demand everything, and instant disinformation and propaganda via a global media system enthralled to corporate interests. We have to double our efforts to meet and oppose out of control bureaucracy laying waste to the Natural World.
It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it.
Santa Cruz Environmental Review 