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Opinion: Crossing That
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Voice From Santa Barbara: Antonia Robertson
April 2, 2006 7:49 AM
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It should be obvious to all that this is a worthwhile goal.
Vista de las Cruces School is located at the confluence of Gaviota Creek and its two main tributaries, Las Nutrias and Las Cruces. As a board member of the school district, I have an obligation to educate our children. Our children would benefit if they could walk down to the creek and watch the steelhead running up the creek, as generations before them have.
A few miles upstream from the bridge in question, an older bridge provides emergency access to the school and primary access to a local ranch headquarters. Members of the community have spent the past few years working to get the necessary permits and engineering done to shore up the abutments to the bridge so that the school can continue to have its emergency access, and neighbors can reach their houses.
We are working with the local Resource Conservation District to obtain permits and design work. We intend to make sure that the work we do will not deteriorate the creek as habitat for steelhead, but also will allow fish to pass where they currently cannot. It should be an improvement to our watershed both for the community, and for the steelhead.
With regard to Gaviota Beach access, its seems clear to me, and to many of my neighbors, that a raised, earthen roadway jutting out into the middle of the Gaviota wetlands will significantly alter the water flow. This design will not be an improvement to our watershed, and we shouldn't put up with it.
hy not design a raised causeway or move the crossing to a narrower portion of the creek that does not support a wetland?
It seems that the answer lies deep in a bureaucratic quagmire, and not with those who should be making the decision. Why not let the local community determine the design of the access to Gaviota Beach and Hollister Ranch? Why must we put up with poorly designed public works projects within our watershed? What kind of process do we have in place that spends eight years and $880,000 of our money to arrive at a design with such obvious flaws?
I would like to see a Gaviota Creek watershed group made up of landowners within the watershed. This group should work to ensure that projects undertaken within our boundaries don't harm the resources that we all depend on while serving the needs of our local community. I would like to see permit relief for projects that are approved by this watershed group to reduce the time and money requirements.
encourage Supervisor Brooks Firestone to join me in helping shepherd these two bridge projects through to their completion in such a way that they serve the needs of our community and improve the health of our watershed. I also encourage him to join me in endorsing the recommendations of the Gaviota study group that include commonsense approaches, such as the one described here.
Roadway as planned will affect watershed
Why must we put up with poorly designed public works projects within our watershed? What kind of process do we have in place that spends eight years and $880,000 of our money to arrive at a design with such obvious flaws?
Jose Baer
The author lives along the Gaviota Creek.