Podcast: |
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Monterey County
As I said yesterday, with reference to the work of NOPOC, Neighbors Organized to Protect Our Community, community participation in land use related matters can actually make a big difference in what governmental agencies do.
To be successful, with respect to any community-based effort, concerned members of the community do have to “get organized,” and they have to be willing to go to meetings, and to educate and inform themselves about the various governmental processes that can so profoundly affect our future. But if they do that, the results are often quite striking. Your participation can, in fact, make a difference. Self‑government actually does work, but as the term so clearly states, we don’t get self-government as a gift from someone else. If we care about self-government, we do need to get involved ourselves.
Stimulating such organized community participation in land use matters is, of course, the “unhidden agenda” of the Land Use Report. Yesterday’s meeting of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors provided another indication of the impact of such community participation with respect to land use policy.
Agenda Item #8 on the Board’s Agenda yesterday was a consideration of various General Plan changes that came out of a lawsuit against the County. That’s part of self-government, too. Sometimes, after all the participation, you do have to go to court!
More Information:
Former Santa Cruz County Supervisor Gary Patton talks about land use, and land use decisions, with an emphasis on public participation and how the land use process works.