May 2000
Agenda
Every Tuesday @ 9 AM
Board of Supervisors meets - on Channel 20.
Every Wednesday @ 9 AM
Planning Commission meets - on Channel 20.
Supervisor Rose holds open office hours from 4 to 6 PM twice
per month on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays.
The 2nd is at Farmers Market and the 4th
is at her office.
Goleta Union School District Board -1st &
3rd Wed. of each month @ 7:30 PM.
Goleta Water District Board - 2nd & 4th
Tues. of each month at 7PM.
Goleta Sanitary District Board -1st & 3rd
Mon of each month @ 7:30 PM.
Santa Barbara City Council - Every Tuesday at 2 and 6 PM.
Channel 18.
Hot Off the
Press
Proud Parents
PANA has a web site. Thanks to the outstanding talent of
former Director and professional site designer, JudyAnn Dutcher,
and your financial support, you can find out all about us
at
www.PANAspeedbump.org
While we are not finished with our design of this site, you
can find our Mission Statement, neighborhood location, Directors,
and all past issues of Speed Bump here. You will soon be able
to contact us through this site. Check it out, and call JudyAnn
(805)967-0232 for all your web needs.
We will use this site to send out crucial announcements in
the future. We also have about 100 of you on an e-mail address
book so we can get messages to you quickly. Ain't technology
something?
Backyard Issues
Arco - The gas station that used to be on the east
side of Patterson Avenue at 101 is being considered for rebuilding.
During the next few months, PANA will be involved in scrutinizing
this project. Our central concern will be whether it can be
accessed safely in such a congested location. There is little
resemblance of the current traffic flows compared to those
which existed when the station was last there.
Albertsons Site - Some of you are well aware that
JM Development has acquired rights to the orchard area west
of Patterson and south of Calle Real, across from their Orchard
Park project where the signs just sprouted.
They have performed a survey of sorts, asking the closest
neighbors what sort of development would be most suitable.
PANA has also been consulted. The result of all this is that
almost no one wants anything that increases traffic or resembles
the Calle Real strip-mall. PANA will be working with you to
identify something that is a benefit to our neighborhood.
AT&T Cell Site - PANA has met with representatives
of AT&T about their desire to improve cell phone service
near Cathedral Oaks Road and Turnpike Road. We were presented
with options of placing a 50foot tower on one of three locations
near this intersection. Two were in church properties, and
a third was in Tuckers Grove Park.
At PANAs request, AT&T was able to provide a fourth option
of locating small antennas on four existing telephone poles
along Cathedral Oaks.
The PANA Board ended up almost evenly split on whether to
favor the Tuckers Grove location for the tower and a sizable
building for the electronics, or whether to favor the locations
along Cathedral Oaks. A majority ended up convinced that we
need to prevent intrusion of commerce into our rare jewels
of local parks. We were also concerned that once the first
such use of County Parks occurred, what would stand in the
way of additional such uses?
Neighborhood
Traffic Cop
Streets - PANA continues to press the County about
the disrepair of our side streets. We visited the worst
streets with Public Works employees and learned that when
streets get too bad, they have to be rebuilt _ so expensive
a process that they drop to the bottom of the list. We need
to attract attention to streets at exactly the right time
_ when they are bad but not too bad.
We have succeeded in getting Pembroke added to the list
for work, and supported improvements for Camino Campana,
Harvard Lane, Pintura Drive, Via Bolzano, Via Salerno, and
North Cambridge Drive that are also scheduled for repair
this year.
We tried and failed to win improvements for Stanford Place,
Kings Way, Danbury Court, Albany Court, Arundel, Wakefield
and Lexington, Agana, Tila Place, Paseo Cameo, Princeton,
Somerset, Longfellow, North Patterson, Paseo Orlando, Paseo
Rio/Calle Aiberta, La Ramada, Cervato, and portions of Cathedral
Oaks, North Kellogg east of St. Mary's, Norma Way, May Court,
Parejo east of Harvard Lane and Pebble Hill Drive.
Construction _ The bridge over University Drive
at San Antonio Creek is due to be closed for reconstruction
starting in July or August for four months. The MTD Route
8 bus will be temporarily rerouted up Ribera to Cathedral
Oaks Road and back down Patterson Avenue during this period.
As early as July, construction will begin on Calle Real
to rebuild the San Jose Creek bridge and widen Calle Real
into a four lane parkway with median. So both of these east-west
routes may be under construction at the same time. Note
that the Fairview overpass at 101 is not due to reopen until
November, so our area is going to be in a state of upheaval
for the next six months or more.
Speed Limits _ The inability to control speeds on
Cathedral Oaks, Patterson at Agana, University Drive and
Berkeley Road continues to attract attention of the neighbors
as well as Supervisors Marshall and Rose. Demonstrations
are being held regularly on Cathedral Oaks, west of the
PANA area.
If you slow down in school zones you are likely to have
someone pass in the bike lane. It seems that newcomers from
more congested cities are used to a greatly more aggressive
style of driving. Legislation is pending at the State level
to help with speed limits, but without enforcement, will
it change anything
Community-wide
Issues
Patterson Avenue -This subject fits everywhere in
our newsletter. Besides road and bridge work on Fairview,
Calle Real and University Drive, a new signal is destined
for Overpass Road on Patterson in just a couple months. Signals
are symptoms of growth. Our own Patterson Avenue will soon
have 7 signals between Cathedral Oaks and Hollister - more
within such a short distance than any other location in the
entire unincorporated County.
Willow Springs - It is fair to say the PANA led campaign
to demand the Willow Springs apartment/ condominium project
toward becoming a detriment to Goleta was a success.
Thanks to many of you who contributed letters after the last
Speed Bump, the Board of Supervisors has approved a Willow
Springs project that pays its way with over $2 million in
fees for traffic, parks and other impacts. Goleta is better
for the involvement of you PANA members. Without you, it is
doubtful whether this 235 unit housing project near Hollister
and Los Carneros would have been anything except a shoddy
low income housing project that increased the deficit of infrastructure
in Goleta.
Willow Springs, located away from all existing neighborhoods,
will help relieve the pressure to place too high a housing
density on small neighborhood parcels, such as Orchard Park
at Patterson and Calle Real. It will pay for its own road
impacts, and provide some of the needed housing at the lower
end of the market. There were no changes to the Community
Plan in the form of rezones. It will even go back through
the County Planning Commission to further refine its architectural
appearance.
Our County Supervisors truly represented your concerns. Goleta
will not be the dumping ground for a disproportionate share
of the County's affordable housing. Furthermore, the Supervisors
made it clear that over-dense, ugly projects will not be approved
in the name of affordability - or given a free ride on impacts.
Humane Society Expansion - PANA recently completed
work on a tough issue - one that required us to oppose another
local non-profit organization well known and respected for
its good works in our community. We felt forced to appeal
the expansion of the Humane Society facilities on Overpass
Road, in order to protect our work over the past two years
for traffic fees and live up to our Mission Statement.
The problem, which required the reaction of PANA, was that
this otherwise worthwhile Humane Society project was about
to create several dangerous precedents. This project had been
approved by County Planning and Development staff, without
Planning Commission review. It promised that newly created
traffic to the Humane Society would avoid rush hour periods,
so that traffic and traffic fees could be IGNORED. It proposed
that recent road improvements at Patterson and Hollister could
be ASSUMED to have corrected past inferior service levels
without bothering to measure whether inferior conditions had
actually been fixed. It also was being approved with only
about half of the ordinarily required parking.
The PANA Board could only imagine the result if every future
project in Goleta asking for similar treatment, and voted
unanimously to appeal the project to a review by the County
Planning Commission. This appeal had the desired effect and
we believe that all parties ended up working together to avoid
setting bad precedent.
PANA Status
Report
THANK YOU. Recipients of Speed Bump have shown their outstanding
support with donations to keep us going. Well over 150 donations
have come in since the last newsletter. This means that PANA
now enjoys financial support from about 400 families in addition
to the 300 who have attended meetings on specific issues.
Speed Bump is distributed to over 3000 area addresses, so
as many as 10,000 people may seen Speed Bump as a direct result
of YOUR support. PANA's area is north of the freeway between
Turnpike Road and Fairview Avenue. Our considerable strength
comes from you.
Goleta Governance
PANA works hard at providing area residents with a voice
in the forums of government. We have long believed that unless
our government gets closer, our efforts will fail. Without
local control, we will lose to outsiders who will dump on
Goleta to avoid undesirable development in their own neighborhoods.
At least four out of five Supervisors will always live outside
the area.
Part of the PANA area is in the 93117 zip code and, as a
result of the efforts of Goleta Now!, will soon have the right
to vote for a new City of Goleta. The Goleta Now! proposal
will bring solid local control over growth issues to those
to the west. If the new City (which 85% seem to favor) decides
to control growth, the entire PANA area will benefit from
constrained traffic growth.
Most of the PANA area is in the 93111 zip code, and a PANA
poll last fall found that about 75% still wished to remain
detached from the new City of Goleta. It is not yet clear
whether the area wishes to remain in the
County or join the City of Santa Barbara. PANA will try to
find out your desires and support the will of the majority.
Meanwhile, PANA will fight for local rule. This means getting
the County to stop stalling on the right of the 93117 area
to vote on the Goleta Now! proposal. It means fighting the
City of Santa Barbara's attempt to scuttle the vote on local
rule. It means advising the City of Santa Barbara that Goletans
have traditionally rejected efforts to buy their votes through
$500 thousand PR campaigns.
You deserve a government that represents you. PANA strives
to get you that government
We Need Your
Help
We need your contributions to continue our
newsletter distribution and to fight for your interests. When
you contribute to PANA, more of your neighbors learn what
is happening around our area. Please think of your contributions
as extending PANA's reach - not just getting the newsletter
to yourself
So many of you have been kind enough to help
in the past, that we have no plans to expand circulation further.
Some send a little each time, while some send a lot all at
once. Either works. But it may have been a year ago that you
last helped PANA with your contribution. Please consider helping
again - or joining in for the first time
We hope you agree that our record of volunteer
effort and success in representing the Patterson Area Neighborhoods
speaks for itself.
PANA absolutely must have help from those
who care about our quality of life. Our recent President has
returned to the working life and is in desperate need of support
or replacement. It is the right time to move on to the next
phase - a combo instead of an aria. In order to remain effective,
PANA must, above all, BE THERE. We need Board members, volunteers,
and officers to take a small part of the load. All you need
to help in a BIG way is a little TIME and a lot of INTEREST.
It is very rewarding.
Specifically, we need someone who is computer
literate to handle the administrative responsibilities of
maintaining mailing lists and communication with our neighbors.
We need three someones who might be inclined to become our
representative at specific weekly meetings of: Board of Supervisors,
Planning Commission, or the Board of Architectural Review.
It can often be done by watching the hearings on TV. We also
would love to find someone who is interested in specializing
in local traffic issues.
When we all divide up the pieces, it is not
much of a chore for any one person. Give us a call at 683-9068
to chat and then attend one of PANA's Board meetings to meet
our friendly group. |
