Let's Talk!

Can we find common ground?

This article originally appeared in our newsletter, Landmarks, Summer 2009

I spent the summer talking – and listening – to people. Most of the time we were talking about creating an open space district in and for our County and, specifically about Senate Bill 211, authored by State Senator Joe Simitian and co-authored by Assemblymembers Anna Caballero and Bill Monning.

SB 211 is what legislators call "enabling legislation." It wouldn't create a district or impose a tax to fund it; it would just enable the County Board of Supervisors, after public hearings, to put measures on the ballot so that voters could decide if they wanted an open space district and, if so, what they want it to do. It is, in short, the first step in a long process filled with public input and ending in the ultimate public say-so, an election. That election won't come until the voters are ready for it – maybe in 2012, maybe later.

The primary reason we have asked for this special legislation is to allow us to tailor a potential district to Santa Cruz County. The special provisions in SB 211 include: the removing of the power of eminent domain from a potential district; giving Watsonville control over its voter-approved Measure U boundaries, and creating an independent elected seven member Board of Directors.

By the end of the summer we thought we had the support necessary to move this bill forward. The County Board of Supervisors and the cities of Santa Cruz and Capitola were supportive and the City of Watsonville withdrew its initial opposition after Measure U and seven member Board amendments were added.

The "Watsonville Amendment" generated some surprising (for us) opposition from some conservation organizations outside of the County. There was concern that the amendment would set a precedent for other potential open space districts. Frankly, we just ran out of time to address these concerns and decided to ask that SB 211 be carried over to next year to give us more time to work on them.

In the coming months we will be working to deepen and broaden the local support for the creation of an open space district – and to find common ground with the agricultural community and our state conservation partners. I come away from this summer with a deeper understanding of the concerns, issues, and passions that lie beneath the differences in our County – differences between the South and the North, between farmers and environmentalists, between urban and rural, and that's just some of it. These divisions go back a long way, as do people's memories of them.

I know that much more talking and listening lie ahead as we move towards creating a district that can protect our county for generations. We will be successful in this effort only if we can find the common ground beneath all the layers of distrust and fear. The passion of the arguments points to this common ground: the deep and abiding love many of us have for the lands that are at the core of what makes our County special. Getting to that common ground will involve talking and listening to each other, a lot. My summer of dialogue was just the beginning.

Terry Corwin
Executive Director •

Email this page to a friend