By Zach Friend, County Supervisor 2nd District
As I begin my second year as your County Supervisor, I wanted to reflect on a portion of the things we’ve done this past year. Nearly all of these accomplishments are due to your partnership and communication of your priorities. Here is an overview of the work our office did in 2013:
Community Meetings: I’ve held 65 open office hours in Aptos, Corralitos and Watsonville and 29 community meetings in Seacliff, La Selva Beach, Aptos, Watsonville and Pajaro Dunes.
In addition, I’ve written over four-dozen columns in local papers and neighborhood newsletters and sent another twelve e-newsletters from our office to communicate with our district about county happenings.
Local Roads: There is no doubt that local roads continue to be a major problem in our district. Over the last year we were able to resurface and striped San Andreas and Casserly Roads, install a culvert, repaired a bridge and repaired storm damage on Green Valley Road, made improvements on Calabasas Road from Bradford Road to Buena Vista Drive including the creation of curbs, gutters, sidewalks and improved drainage as well as roadway resurfacing and created a new left turn lane at Bradley Elementary in Corralitos.
In addition, we repaired a long-neglected rail crossing on Mar Vista Drive in Seacliff and worked to complete the Seacliff village undergrounding documents to begin in 2014 the initial median, streetscape and undergrounding projects from State Park to Broadway.
Our office also worked with the Sanitation District on a project to replace sewer lines (and repave the roads) throughout the Aptos Village area. Lastly, we brought funding for the long-planned Rio Del Mar Roundabout through the Monterey Air Pollution Control District.
Economic Vitality and Stability: This year the Board of Supervisors took a significant step toward improving the long-term economic viability of our area. The Board instituted an Economic Vitality Strategy. Led by the County’s Economic Development Coordinator and the County Administrative Officer, the plan includes a number of changes to simplify and streamline the planning process, making the process for residential and business customers easier.
At this point, about 60 changes have been made to modernize the planning process. In addition, our office has focused on ensuring broadband expansion (in capacity and speed) are part of the plan to significantly modernize Internet capabilities for home businesses, commercial businesses and residential customers.
These policies will increase competition and make Internet part of economic development policy in our County. These policies are now used by the Governor’s Office of Economic and Business Development as a statewide model for local government broadband policy.
Regarding the long-awaited Aptos Village project, I secured nearly $700k in traffic and pedestrian improvements and helped negotiate the final elements of the rail crossings with the rail operator to hopefully allow for groundbreaking later this year.
Quality of Life: Our district is a special place with an unparalleled quality of life. Over the last year I worked to see through the approval of the development of a large section of the Nisene-to-Sea trail near Vienna Woods/Cabrillo, set aside $60,000 in funding for permanent restrooms at the Polo Grounds Park and saw the Aptos High practice field through the Planning process and voted in support after working to address neighborhood concerns with PVUSD.
In addition, we worked to improve crosswalk and sidewalk safety near Rio Del Mar Elementary and greatly increased speed limit signage to reduce speeding in Rio Del Mar and Seascape areas. As a Library Joint Powers Authority board member, I voted to move forward with a library master plan that would significantly improve the Aptos and Capitola libraries while making improvements to the La Selva Beach branch.
Moving Forward: We have a lot more to do in 2014 as we face challenges on land use (from the PG&E project to Rancho Del Mar), traffic, economic vitality and the condition of local roads.
Last year we addressed nearly 500 direct requests for service to our office on neighborhood road issues, noise, environmental, public safety and infrastructure concerns – all from emails and calls to us.
We’d love to continue to hear from you to prioritize what we do. Call us at 454-2200 and have a great New Year!
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www.zachfriend.com • www.co.santa-cruz.ca.us