City of Goleta Storm Water Management Program (SWMP) Workshop
Thursday, Feb 20th at the Goleta Valley Community Center, Rm 2 at 6 -8 PM. The goal of this program is to protect the health of the recreational public and the environment, meet Clean Water Act mandates through compliance with Phase II of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements and to foster maximum public involvement and awareness. The plan will guide the city's efforts to improve creek and ocean water quality over the next five years.

Visit www.countyofsb.org/project_cleanwater to view a copy of the SWMP. For more information, call Darcy Aston at 568-3546.

Noel Christmas Tree Farm Update
For those of you who did not attend the community meeting on Wednesday, Feb 12th, here is a brief description from the point of view of the developer, Jeff Nelson in a message to Anne Almay, the county's planner on the project. The developer is looking for some direction from the county about how to proceed given the neighborhood opposition to the higher density of houses the county wants compared to that which the neighbors feel is compatible with the neighborhood.

"We held a community meeting/update on the above project last night at the Cathedral Oaks Village (COVA) community meeting building. In spite of the driving rain some 75 interested neighbors attended. The meeting went over 2 hours. This had been organized by PANA and assisted by COVA. We went through a description of the process to date and took input for an extended period of time. Many of the neighbors had very specific input, both positive and negative on the many different possible housing components in our eight different plans to date. This meeting had been initiated by us wanting to share the "BAR responsive" concept/plan with the neighbors. Needless to say we are in an awkward position having been instructed by Supervisor Rose to work closely with the neighbors to achieve neighborhood compatibility, having done that for some, gulp, three years now, and then being asked by staff to hit and entirely different target for density. This is the most "neighbors inclusive" infill planning process I have ever seen. It would be disadvantageous to everyone to entirely fracture that process. This project has, by design, the most diverse choice of housing types/market segments I have seen. Realistically many different target densities could be hit depending on how the various site plan alternatives for each area of the project are put together."

The developer is setting up a meeting with the county's planner to determine how to proceed. PANA has been invited to attend this meeting. The developer plans to hold another community meeting in the near future once he is further along in the process with more information from the planning staff.

ARCO Gas Station and Mini-mart
The board of supervisor's is expected to vote on the findings upholding Doreen Farr's appeal to the planning commission's decision to approve an ARCO gas station and mini-mart project at the Patterson northbound off-ramp to Highway 101. At the supervisor's last meeting, ARCO's attorney presented material challenging the findings. County counsel did not have sufficient time to respond to the challenge and so the hearing was continued to March 18th.

Patterson Packing.
Trudi Carey's new mini-storage facility, at the southwest corner of Patterson and Calle Real, is expected to go before the planning commission in April.