Execution Delayed But Not Reversed: OVO Up for Rubberstamping 1-12

The ZOOMed Zoning Administrator's hearing yesterday with its predetermined approval of Coastal and Design Permit was delayed a week through an on-line screw-up which I and others brought to City Administrator Bonnie Bush's attention.

The preconstructed patter put out by the Zoning Administration hearing officer made no reference to the Coastal Commission's previous 2016 rationale for rejecting Richelle Niroyan's OVO law. The City staff failed to outline any currently existing meaningful expansion of RV parking/storage space

The ballyhooed "crime" problem, referred to but not documented by staff, also lacked stats and relied on the usual "calls for service" roster. The roster is justification for shutting off access to the coast at night for the entire community. Specifying unhoused folks would be too obviously discriminatory. The full Coastal Commission made this very clear in 2016.

I received the following e-mail from Mike Ferry after the hearing examiner's rubberstamping of City Council's OVO law on 1-5 (later rescinded because of "bad links", but almost surely to be repeated on 1-12).

POSTPONEMENT & RERUBBERSTAMPING COMING UP
Hi Folks:

Looks like we had a glitch on one of the links to today's ZA meeting where people could not connect. To ensure everyone has a chance to voice their opinion, a special Zoning Administrator meeting has been scheduled for January 12th @ 10:00 A.M. This will provide an opportunity for those who wished to speak but were unable to voice their opinion on any of the three items that were scheduled. All of the public comments received prior to and at the 1/5 meeting will remain on the record, therefore, you do not need attend and speak again unless desired.

At this meeting, we will also clarify the appeal periods for each of the items. The appeal period for the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance was incorrectly stated at the Zoning Administrator meeting this morning as ten calendar days following Zoning Administrator action; however, the Coastal Commission appeal period will not actually begin until they receive a Final Local Action Notice from the city following the city’s 10 calendar day appeal period. Once the Final Local Action Notice is received, the Coastal Commission begin a ten working day appeal period.

None of the three agenda items will be re-noticed for the 1/12 meeting as the items were continued to a date certain.

Sorry about the mix-up.
Michael Ferry

NO CLARITY YET ON APPEAL DATES
Though I've requested several times there be some clarity about the deadlines and procedures to appeal the inevitable sunny approval of City Council's homeless RV ban, no City official has come through with any clarity on that.

Apparently, according to Ferry's comments at the 1-5 hearing, there are two roads to appeal.

One is to the Planning Commission (which upheld a pro-homeless appeal by Alicia Kuhl around the attempted RV eviction from Olive street a year and a half ago). Their decision could then be appealed to City Council. I don't know how much this would cost or what fee waives would be.

The second route is directly to the Coastal Commission--which is what I did last time in 2016 at the suggestion of Councilmember Micah Posner.

The more pressure and public education along this rocky road the better--regardless of the outcome.

DETAILS FOR THE DETERMINED
The City's website has the usual tortured Zoom instructions:

Click on Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81634465483
Or, Call any of the numbers below. If one is busy, try the next one.
1-833-548-0276 (Toll Free) 1-833-548-0282 (Toll Free)
1-669-900-9128 1-346-248-7799 1-646-558-8656

Enter the webinar ID number: 816 3446 5483
When prompted for a Participant ID, press #
Press *9 on your telephone or raise your hand through the Zoom app when you wish to speak.
It will be your turn to speak when the Clerk unmutes you. You will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted.
You will need to press “unmute” or *6 to unmute yourself if it does not automatically unmute you when it is your turn.

You can also send the Zoning Administrator written material, but must do so at least 24 hours before the hearing. Try planningcounter [at] cityofsantacruz.com, cityplan [at] cityofsantacruz.com, or bbush [at] cityofsantacruz.com

HEAR THE HORROR
I'll be playing some of the audio of the 1-5 hearing on my Sunday Bathrobespierre's Net Show, probably around an hour into the audio file. Check out the 1-9 show at Latest and Lost Shows under http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html