Janury 23, 2026 Guest Interviews with Gillian Greensite (Santa Cruz City Affordable Housing Ministerial Approval Overlay); Jim Wason (Winter Field Day); Ed Mitchell (Moss Landing Vistra BESS Fire)

2:06pm-3pm, Guest Gillian Greensite will discuss the impending action of Santa Cruz City Council to erase the public's involvement in large construction projects in a broad swath of town if there is affordable housing involved, and to make it easier for developers to chop down large heritage trees. Santa Cruz is facing a critical moment. Recent decisions by the city's planning commission to eliminate public hearings for 100% affordable housing projects could have far-reaching implications not just for community involvement, but also for the environment.  The proposed Affordable Housing Overlay District would cover approximately 15% of the build-able area of the City. Other cities have far smaller overlay zones or are going project by project to evaluate if public hearings are required. Santa Cruz is going for the max . If approved, there will be no public hearings held at meetings of the City Council or Planning Commission for 100% affordable housing projects in the proposed overlay district. Current protection for heritage trees will end for projects within the Overlay District as well as for heritage trees on adjacent properties if within ten feet of the project. https://www.change.org/p/keep-public-hearings-for-all-large-housing-projects-in-santa-cruz Speak up at Santa Cruz City Council meetings about this...even though it has seemingly been continued on the January 27 agenda.   3:06pmWason -3:15pm, Guest Jim Wason will detail Ham Radio Preparedness and Winter Field Day, happening this Saturday at the Santa Cruz Sheriff Posse Center (2127 Ocean Street Extension, in Santa Cruz). https://winterfieldday.org/ Learn more about the venue: https://www.sccsp.org/   3:15pm-4pm, Guest Ed Mitchell will discuss what the EPA is and is not doing at the Moss Landing Vistra Battery Energy Storage (BESS) site.  What do we know?  What is the EPA and Vistra NOT telling us?  "Never Again Moss Landing", a grassroots group continues to actively press for answers, one year after the massive toxic fire at the largest BESS in the world: https://neveragainmosslanding.org/