Article taken from the Santa
Barbara News Press
Published with permission
Resort to expand
By
BARNEY MCMANIGAL
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
08/21/04
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A plan to expand a popular South Coast campground will move forward, despite worries about its impact on the environment.
El Capitan Canyon, the 126-site luxury campground near Gaviota, gained zoning approval Tuesday to build 100 affordable cabin units and up to 149 additional units in the upper price range.
The Board of Supervisors affirmed the Planning Commission's unanimous approval of the project, which the local Sierra Club chapter appealed earlier this year. The group said the environmental effects of the project required further study.
"This is a significant commercial enterprise," Sierra Club spokeswoman Ada Babine said. "We believe those facilities will increase water use beyond what was used in the past."
But lawyers for campsite owners Larry Callahan and Roger Himovitz rejected the idea that water use would increase significantly.
"An environmental impact report can only be required when there is evidence of an environmental problem," lawyer Jana Zimmer said. "They have not provided any evidence."
Surfrider Foundation volunteer Bob Keats told supervisors the new dwellings and proposed sanitation structures could pollute the El Capitan Creek and Pacific Ocean. He questioned whether effluence from a proposed dry well would seep into ground water.
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"I don't believe we have 100 percent certainty that we will not have pollution at El Capitan Canyon," Mr. Keats said.
Calling the Gaviota coast one of the last undeveloped coastal stretches in Southern California, Mr. Keats said it required a higher level of review.
Supervisors, who voted unanimously to approve the expansion, noted that project conservation efforts vastly improved the restrictions previously in place, when campers flocked to the canyon by the thousands.
"We have done every possible thing to mitigate every question the county could have," Mr. Callahan said.