Ellwood, UCSB plan wins first nod

Next step is master plan for coastline vicinity, housing

8/22/01 

JUNE RICH
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER 

A plan to create a 599-acre nature preserve along the Ellwood Mesa and build up to 550 homes for UCSB faculty, staff and students won a conceptual green light from the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday. County staff will now work to create one master plan for the entire area, which spans 2¼ miles of coastline from Isla Vista to Sandpiper Golf Course. Public hearings will likely begin in winter 2002, after environmental reviews are completed. The unanimous approval occurred in an unusually ebullient atmosphere of good-feeling and congratulation. Superlatives seldom directed at the county Planning and Development Department filled the room. The nascent plan was called "miraculous," "creative," "adroitly conceived" and a "win-win-win" by public speakers, many from environmental groups. Supervisor Naomi Schwartz summed up the general sentiment by commending the collaborative effort by the county, UCSB and private developers who have signed on to the plan: "A lot of Tuesdays are very discouraging. It often feels that all of the easy issues have been dealt with and there is nothing left on the table but the difficult issues. This is a Tuesday where I feel tremendously encouraged."

Representatives from many advocacy groups offered qualified support to look into the regional plan. Speakers included those from the Audubon Society, the Citizens Planning Association, the Coalition to Preserve Santa Barbara Shores, the Environmental Defense Center, the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Goleta Valley Land Trust, the League of Women Voters, the Santa Barbara Shores Homeowners Association, Save Ellwood Shores and the Surfrider Foundation. All of the groups reiterated that the "devil would be in the details," but said they wanted the county to go forward with the process. One major concern voiced by Audubon and the Environmental Defense Center was that this new process would derail a management plan being crafted for Coal Oil Point. Defenders of the threatened snowy plover, which winters in the dunes there, want that plan in place as soon as possible, to protect the tiny shorebird. County officials said that the main objectives of any plan adopted for Coal Oil Point could be reflected in the larger, regional plan. Other speakers asked that the county not go into the plan assuming that certain wetlands must be destroyed to achieve the greater good. As it stands, the plan would cluster development away from the coastline, in four large parcels, some of which contain degraded wetlands and other natural resources. Three of the parcels would be for university housing. A site next to the eastern edge of Coal Oil Point would include 50 units, down from 100 already approved by the UC Regents. A site northeast of Ocean Meadows Golf Course would have 144 units of student housing, and a parcel northwest of the golf course would have around 350 units for faculty and staff. In exchange for the county's support on those projects before the California Coastal Commission, the university would agree to abandon plans to build up to 122 units on its property south of the golf course, dedicating the area to the nature preserve instead. For almost a decade UCSB has been trying to win approval from the Coastal Commission to build housing. Duncan Mellichamp, special assistant to UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang, said he hoped the plan would go before the regents at their next meeting for a similar conceptual approval. Also, through a land swap with the county, the plan would protect the entire Monarch Point Reserve site from development. The developer, whose plans near the famous butterfly groves have faced fierce public opposition for years, would be able to build 75 to 200 high-end homes at a different, less-sensitive site, at the northern end of Santa Barbara Shores Park. Though a land swap of some sort has been tossed around for years, the arrival of a new developer at Monarch Point makes the plan seem more feasible. Bob Comstock, of Comstock Homes, based in Manhattan Beach, said at Tuesday's hearing that he is "110 percent" behind the plan. Mr. Comstock did say that some "economic gaps would need to be filled" to make the swap profitable, but did not elaborate on what that might mean. Mr. Comstock has said he envisions 125 to 145 single-family homes at the site. Up until a recent environmental review, the 118-acre park was considered for baseball fields, bike races, and group barbecue facilities. The area proposed for Mr. Comstock's development is considered the least sensitive in the park. Nearly 300 acres involved in the land deal are within the proposed city boundaries of Goleta: Santa Barbara Shores Park, the tract that includes the Monarch Point Reserve and 43 acres UCSB plans for faculty housing. If Goleta cityhood is approved in November, the new city council would take over decision-making for those parcels on Feb. 1, 2002, the city's official birthday. John Patton, director of county planning, said that everyone involved was cognizant of Goleta's possible role, but emphasized that it was important to launch the process of gathering information nonetheless. The plan would also call for restoration of damaged habitat and a balance between protection and human access on the preserve, likely to be one of the largest in Southern California; up to 10 miles of public hiking and biking trails are envisioned. After the county approval process, the plan would need to go before the California Coastal Commission. The county would then need to prove that, on balance, the plan does a better job protecting the region's natural resources than if the county, the developers and UCSB pursued their plans independently.