Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Catch New Air Regulations
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is offering four workshops in early November to bring residents up to speed on Regulation 13 and other rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and major pollutants. Rule 13-1 is the Air District’s first rule specifically focused on regulating methane, a potent greenhouse gas the Monitor covered in 2015 when initial research began showing local emissions could be double what experts previously thought. To learn about the current situation, click here for Air District workshop dates, locations, and other materials.
Transit-Oriented Transformations
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) will host a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday, October 25) about its plans to turn over a parking area at the Blossom Hill Light Rail Station and create a transit-oriented development (TOD) with affordable housing, retail, and office space. We recently wrote about how VTA and BART are pursuing TOD plans, a policy decision with promise and challenges. Set up house here for VTA updates and meeting information. Another gathering about the Milpitas Transit Center is slated for Thursday, November 15.
Rain Check
Winter forecasts point to an El Niño, a cyclical warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. But how much wet weather El Niño actually delivers is “strictly a toss-up,” said Jan Null at Golden Gate Weather Services, a Saratoga consultancy, in a Water Deeply interview. Null discussed why forecasting El Niño is difficult and how to manage expectations given the West’s water shortage concerns. Should a deluge materialize, local agencies are ready for outcomes like flooding, as Robin Meadows explained last year in a Monitor article about how a new radar system will aid with flood prediction.
Trek and Treats
Is your Halloween costume picked out? Then join the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) for a costume hike at Calero County Park this Saturday, October 27 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. The word is there’s goodies at the end of the walk. Scare up a registration for this family-friendly event here. Not a ghost of a chance you’ll dress up? Then read about POST’s favorite spots to see monarch butterfly roosts and plan a day trip instead.
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