Client Projects
Land Use Planning for Water Professionals
California Water Boards
A series of two-day workshops delivered throughout the state helped bring water quality scientists and engineers up-to-speed on local land use laws and practices and what implications these have for the Water Boards’ regulatory efforts to improve water quality in California.
The need: Many water resources professonals do not have a background in local land use planning laws, yet water quality is significantly affected by land use and community development projects. Water Board staff needed training in current land use laws and practices in order to interact more effectively with local governments and developers.
The solution: UC Davis Extension delivered an overview of California land use planning law and processes using discussions, case studies, lectures and interactives exercises. Water Board staff gained new skills and knowledge to better integrate water quality objectives into community development.
One participant commented, "The instructor provided tools that can be used regardless of which division you work in within the Water Board. Land-use planning was really simplified and I now have a much better understanding of how it can be applied early on with many of our projects."
Meet the instructors: Jeff Loux, Ph.D., is the chair of the Science, Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at UC Davis Extension, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Landscape Architecture, UC Davis. Loux has 25 years of experience in land use planning and natural resources policy, much of it as a facilitator or mediator of complex multi-party negotiations.
