Summary: Wednesday, December 30, 2015 / 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. A little bit over forty years ago, lots of people in the City of Santa Cruz decided that land use decisions were really important. Their reaction was to get together, and to get organized, and to try to affect land use decision making. Two very prominent groups, the Save Lighthouse Point Association and Operation Wilder, focused on very specific land use proposals, and their success in stopping truly gargantuan development projects helped stimulate the formation of other groups, many of them neighborhood based. Obviously, participation had a payoff! I think it’s fair to say that the City of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County experienced about twenty-five to thirty years of rather significant community involvement in land use, with the focus being on the management and control of growth, to prevent the local community on this side of the hill from turning into another version of the Silicon Valley. A growth management system for the County was adopted, a Greenbelt was established around the City of Santa Cruz, and lots of other land use decisions reflected active community participation. That kind of community and neighborhood organization may be coming back into favor! The Branciforte Bulletin is a new website, organized by Eastside residents, who are concerned about the impacts of the City’s current pro-development policies. You can check it out at kusp.org/landuse. This is Gary Patton. More Information: Land Use Links Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog Branciforte Bulletin Website
