Santa Cruz County Land Use & Development Digest

Oakland Democrat Buffy Wicks said lawmakers will soon see 20 bills to speed up housing construction, along with more on energy, water and transit.

In the wake of past devastating fires, Santa Cruz County residents in vulnerable "one-way-out" are taking the lead in preparing safe evacuation routes in case of future fires. Read on to learn more.

The governor has proposed spending climate bond money dedicated to wildfire mitigation in various ways. Some lawmakers think a focused strategy would be more effective.

Ricardo Lara said he will look at information provided by State Farm before revisiting his previous decision to reject the company’s emergency rate hike.

Feather River College is still reeling from the 2021 Dixie Fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes in the surrounding community and warped the housing market. The college is one of many schools that have tried — and failed — to secure state grants to build more student housing.

Each year, legislation aimed at better wildfire mitigation fails – often due to cost or conflict with environmental regulations.

A passel of recent California laws were supposed to supercharge the construction of desperately needed housing. According to YIMBY Law, they haven’t even come close.

In a dispute over whether he can convert his three-story condominium’s garage into its own ground-floor apartment, one Carlsbad resident is waging a battle against his homeowners association.

The timing could not have been better — or worse.

In the days and weeks following the January Los Angeles County wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his office moved quickly to manage the response and begin recovery efforts after the blazes were contained. Since then, the governor has been singularly focused on the region, describing his approach as “an extended period of engagement” with L.A. during a press conference in Altadena last week.

California Governor Newsom signed an emergency proclamation, opening up state funding and personnel to help recover from the storms which caused over $44 million in damages to Santa Cruz County. Read on for details.

Against the recommendation of his staff experts, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara denied a request from State Farm to green light “emergency” rate increases for insurance policy holders.

Read on for a look at the work being done to build a new trail network at the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, which is set to open to the public this summer.

AS HOST TO the largest battery storage facility in the world, on a site that just had its fourth fire in four years, the people of Monterey County have grown to realize that Moss Landing is a learning laboratory for California’s green energy transition.

In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, State Farm asked for an “emergency” premium increase of 22% on average for California homeowners. Lara today denied the request pending more information.

The historic Bayview Hotel in Aptos Village is back on the market after a prospective buyer backed out of the deal. Read on to learn more about this local landmark and what happened to derail the sale.

Read on to learn more about a Pajaro Valley Unified School District proposal to relocate Renaissance High School in La Selva Beach to make room for the Ceiba Prep charter school.

The largest marine sanctuary in the continental U.S. starts at the ocean’s edge in San Francisco. It’s bigger than Yellowstone National Park. And it could use a little help.The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary stretches from Marin County to the southern end of Big Sur and has a host of volunteer opportunities, from water quality monitoring to on-the-water kayaking naturalist, according to a press release Friday.

Read on to learn about the collaboration between UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College to build a joint student housing facility on the Cabrillo Campus and recent progress in moving the project forward.

COME VISIT THE SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (usually called SLAC), on the edge of the Stanford University campus, to learn about the inner workings of its 2-mile-long accelerator, which is used to smash atoms and now makes new discoveries about the universe.SLAC’s accelerator is so long that it crosses under Interstate 280.

State Farm, which already has rate increase requests pending, asked state officials to approve more insurance price increases.

Read on to learn about the obstacles encountered by residents trying to rebuild in the aftermath of 2020's CZU Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

In the wake of the fire earlier this month at Vistra Corporation’s Moss Landing Power Plant and Energy Storage Facility, the California Public Utilities Commission has proposed new standards for battery energy storage facilities.

Damages in the ongoing Southern California wildfires are topping $250 billion, on track for the costliest disaster in US history. Read on to learn more.

The president’s order has no immediate effect on offshore wind leases already authorized, including two large areas off California’s coast. But it sends a current of uncertainty through the fledgling renewable energy industry, which relies on federal and state support.

With President Donald Trump bound for Los Angeles today and once again threatening to withhold wildfire aid to California unless the state abides by his water policies, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Thursday to provide $2.5 billion in state funding for wildfire response and preparedness.

It would be impossible to overstate the complexity of water supply management in California.

At the Pasadena City College disaster resource center, the long, methodical work of putting lives back together is underway.

A look at how the rebuilding effort is going in the California town of Paradise, wiped out in a 2018 fire, and how it offers insights for the tough road ahead for residents in neighborhoods destroyed in the fires of Southern California.

Emergency infrastructure repairs are slowly transitioning into permanent upgrades in the unincorporated Monterey County community of Pajaro, where two years ago a series of torrential storms caused a pipe to fail and a road to collapse.

Some schools destroyed years ago in the Sonoma and Butte fires are just now reopening. The long, expensive process of rebuilding in LA may eat up much of the money voters approved in November for school repairs statewide.

An update of the continuing soil impacts of the CZU Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains.