Stay out, Ellwood developers tell county

5/26/00

By MORGAN GREEN 
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

mgreen@newspress.com

The developers of the most controversial property in Goleta have told county officials to stay off their land, effectively blocking studies that could trigger stiffer conservation restrictions on a proposed 129-home luxury seaside subdivision.

Randy Fox, representing the Santa Barbara Development Partnership, said in a letter to the county Planning Department earlier this month that the group "does not give its consent to any further entry onto or study of its property," at Ellwood Beach.

Recent county visits in the name of environmental study "is plain old trespassing," Fox said Wednesday.

County officials countered that the partnership must rescind its demand in five days, or processing for the partnership's Monarch Point Reserve development permits will stop.

Both sides have stated in writing their willingness to talk, but as of Thursday there were no moves to end the stalemate.

The county maintains that for 10 years officials have been allowed on the property to help process development applications.

That owners now are denying access is a "bad faith" act, and impedes additional environmental assessment of the entire area, according to a letter signed by Patty Miller, a county planner.

That assessment is aimed at changing land-use rules to better protect natural features on the partnership's 135 acres and the adjoining undeveloped 118-acre Santa Barbara Shores Regional County Park. The partnership last year declined to help with that evaluation.

Fox and his partners want to build upscale houses and duplexes on about 30 acres overlooking Ellwood Beach. About 105 acres would become a nature preserve.

The parcel includes Ellwood's well-known eucalyptus groves where monarch butterflies amass each winter, rare coastal seasonal wetlands, stands of rare and endangered native grasses, habitat for threatened birds, and trails with sweeping ocean to mountain vistas that have been freely used by the public for years.

The rare features and beauty have made it ground zero for a marathon political fight between the developers and local conservation groups over preserving what remains of seaside open-space on the South Coast.

After 10 years of proposals, counter-proposals, lawsuits and reversals by the Board of Supervisors and state Coastal Commission, the developers last year submitted a revised version of their housing plan based on 1995 land-use rules.

Late last year, county planners found that the butterfly grove, wetlands and stands of grass may have grown since 1991, when the original environmental study of the property was conducted.

Under the state Environmental Quality Act, Miller said, that justifies an update of the original environmental evaluation.

The information compiled for the subdivision, she said, would also be used to determine land-use changes for the private property and the park.

If the studies confirm that more land should be preserved, the county could shrink the acreage it permits for houses under the Monarch Point Reserve application, or restrict future proposals.

"I'm upset about that," said Fox. "To come back now and ask for a second bite of the apple does not seem appropriate. I don't think the law allows it."