Board says explore costs of updating Coastal Plan

Article taken from The Lompoc Record

Board says explore costs of updating Coastal Plan

By Julian J. Ramos/Staff Writer

August 19, 2008

At the conclusion of a workshop on preserving the Gaviota Coast, a split Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to direct county staff to explore the costs of updating the county's General Plan and Coastal Plan - a document that hasn't been re-worked since the early 1980s .

Supervisors Salud Carbajal, Joe Centeno and Janet Wolf were in favor, with supervisors Brooks Firestone and Joni Gray dissenting. Carbajal, the board chairman, said he'd hoped for a unanimous vote.

Carbajal's motion included discussions with stakeholders on funding options to buy land for conservation. The workshop was intended to “find a common ground in moving forward,” Carbajal said.

Centeno, who said he was born in Naples, two miles west of Goleta, said the study of the costs for the updates should be part of the next fiscal year budget. Centeno favored working with the private sector and landowners on the purchase of property to ensure conservation.

Gray countered that “every dime should be spent on property, not studying.”

Calling the workshop discussion “very positive,” Wolf said she favored an update of the Coastal Plan, a separate element of the General Plan that was adopted in 1982 to protect coastal resources, ensure access to public recreation and develop urban-rural boundaries. The more than 40 mile Gaviota coastline is mostly zoned agricultural.

Proclaiming “I love the Gaviota Coast,” Firestone, who is not running for re-election in November, said he would do everything he” possibly could to protect” the area.

Firestone said the “time will never be better than now” to “make some deals” and lock up land into perpetuity. “Now's the time to do it.”

He also said transfers of development rights (TDR) , which the county Planning Commission endorsed in July from the Naples area to other South Coast properties, was “wonderful in theory” but in practice “might not be doing anything for us.”

The landowners of a project known as Santa Barbara Ranch are proposing to build between 54 and 72 homes on hundreds of acres at Naples.

In concept, the TDR ordinance would allow a land-conservation group, for example, to buy development rights for particular lots. The development credits could then be sold by the group to developers for the rights, at another location, to build more units on their properties than otherwise allowed by county zoning.

Carbajal said TDR could be used as a “tool” for Naples and the entire South County coast, and is the “most logical step to explore.”

A TDR ordinance is not expected to reach the board until October.

Monday's vote came after hearing from more than 30 speakers during an almost four hour-long workshop. Many of the speakers represented groups such as the Gaviota Study Group, the Naples Coalition, and land-conservation organizations. Some were landowners or representatives of landowners.

Michael Feeney of the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County recommended keeping coastal zoning standards “strong” to encourage voluntary conservation.

Carolyn Cogan of the Sierra Club said the only people who benefit from the proposed Naples development would be the developer and the owners of the luxury homes that would be built.

Andy Caldwell, the executive director of COLAB, said there has been no discussion on the loss of property rights and land taken off the county tax rolls.