Photo: a street view entering Aptos Village shows that there are no sidewalks on either side of Soquel Dr. The County has an opportunity to apply for a large state grant to pay for sidewalks here. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Credit: Google Maps

Item 10: Direct the Deputy CAO ... to apply for the 2024 Solutions for Congested Corridors Program funding to continue with ... the Watsonville-Santa Cruz Multimodal Corridor Program ...

Will Aptos Village ever have a complete sidewalk network? Will it ever be safe for bikes and pedestrians to travel between Aptos Village and Aptos Junior High? Those are the questions that the Board of Supervisors will consider when it decides whether or not to join the Regional Transportation Commission in applying for this multi-million-dollar state grant.

A combined approach of simultaneously improving Soquel Dr and Highway 1 was the winning strategy that secured $107 million for Santa Cruz County just a few years ago. That money is paying for the majority of the improvements you see being constructed today on both Soquel Dr and Highway 1 between Harbor High/ the Soquel Ave exit and State Park Dr in Aptos.

It was always planned that the same combined strategy would be used to complete improvements along this 2.4 mile stretch of Soquel Dr from State Park Dr to Freedom Blvd. However, with a constrained budget and mounting costs for storm damage repairs, it's been called into question whether the County can afford to do this project.

Supervisor Friend and I are asking our Board colleagues to move forward with this grant application and budgeting for the Soquel Dr project over the coming years. It's now or never to make these improvements happen because grant opportunities like this are rare. If it falls through, the project will probably never happen.

Project improvements would include buffered and separated bike lanes, bicycle signal heads with push button actuation, Traffic Signal Priority for the Santa Cruz Metro Transit Agency bus, Adaptive Traffic Control Signals, complete sidewalk gaps, install sidewalk extensions, enhance pedestrian crossings with the installation of Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB), upgrade pedestrian curb ramps to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) current standards, roadway resurfacing, and install new striping.

Photo: a cigarette butt drips chemicals including arsenic and lead. The Board of Supervisors will consider banning the sale of cigarette butts tomorrow. Credit: The Cigarette Surfboard

Item 11: Consider approving in concept an "Ordinance ... to Prohibit Sale of Filtered Tobacco Products" ...

Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet, they provide absolutely no health benefit to smokers, and they are toxic to the environment. They are made of plastic that persists in our environment for millennia and they leach the toxins contained in cigarette smoke including arsenic and lead. That's why I'm proud to bring forward this county ordinance with Supervisor Justin Cummings to ban the sale of cigarette butts.

As someone who has helped out on many coastal cleanups, I'm tired of picking up cigarette butts. I'm tired of finding them on the beach; I'm tired of finding them outside my daughter's bedroom door from some construction worker who knows how many years ago; I'm tired of finding them at the top of Tioga Pass in Yosemite. 

This ordinance would NOT ban the sale of all cigarettes, only those with a non-smokeable filter on the end.

Opponents say this is a small issue, but cigarette butts accounted for 24% of all of the pieces of trash picked up in the Monterey Bay and over 1 trillion cigarette butts are discarded every year.

Opponents say that it won't matter if Santa Cruz County does this, it won't impact the big picture, but a City of Berkeley law kicked off the movement to heal the ozone layer and Santa Cruz's initiatives have already contributed to creating a state-wide ban on flavored tobacco and ending single-use shampoo bottles in hotels. A state-wide ban on cigarette butts failed multiple times, so a local, ground-up approach is the only way to end this waste.

Opponents say that we should just put out more receptacles, but even in concentrated, high-smoking areas like Sydney's financial district with clever signage receptacles only reduce litter 30%. 

Opponents say that a ban will have a huge impact on sales and tax revenue, but the County's flavored tobacco ban lead to just a 3.1% decline in tobacco sales and then double digit increases as consumer behavior adapted. Analysis shows a worst-case scenario of roughly $100,000 per year in tax revenue lost. It could also be less than $10,000.

Opponents say that we should target big tobacco instead of local retailers like liquor stores, gas stations and 7-11, but the County Board of Supervisors and City Councils can't regulate national tobacco manufacturers, we can only target the products sold by local distributors. We've built in a long lead time to the ordinance (more than 2 years before enforcement begins) so that local stores have time to educate their customers and transition to other products.

At the end of the day, one person's freedom to smoke should not deprive another person of the freedom to a clean environment. In fact, they don't even have to be mutually exclusive. That's why it's time for a law to stop the sale of this toxic garbage.

What's Happening in the District

Photo: Screenshot of new dashboard.

Photo: Strawberry fields in Watsonville.

The Agricultural Commissioner reports that the County's agricultural industry faced challenges recovering from winter storms. Santa Cruz County gross crop values declined 1.8 percent in 2023, with agricultural commodities valued $654.7 million before production and other costs are factored in. 

Berry crops continue to represent the majority of gross crop values led by strawberries, which had an estimated value of $184.8 million over 2,363 acres. This represented a 16 percent decline in total gross production value of strawberries attributable to storm damage and flooding that occurred in late 2022 and early 2023. Overall, berries represent 60 percent of the total gross production values of the County’s agricultural crops.

“Severe storms can have a significant impact on agricultural operations, and these declines were not unexpected,” Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner David Sanford said. “While the fields have recovered and returned to full productivity, damages and delays caused losses that persisted throughout 2023 and underscored how climate change can impact our economy.”

Vegetable production also suffered from weather-related issues, contributed to a drop in production value of approximately 10 percent compared to 2022, with an overall value of $90.9 million.

Nursery crops rebounded in 2023, while wine grapes and apples held steady. 

Read the full report here:

https://www.agdept.com/AgriculturalCommissioner/AnnualCropandLivestockReports.aspx

Photo: Cruz Aware logo.

With winter on its way, it's a great time to sign up for local emergency alerts with Cruz Aware. You can stay informed of incoming storms, get details on storm prep information, and be alerted about evacuations. Alerts for prescribed burns are now included too. 

Photo: road work.

Photo: Board of Supervisors meeting in Board Chambers.