September 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

October 18 Meeting at Kellogg School

PANA rarely calls a meeting since we know how busy everyone is. But it seems that once or twice a year important developments warrant getting together to get your opinion. Now is such a time, with two current developments being planned in the heart of our neighborhoods.

1. Noel Christmas Tree Farm is planning to convert to housing. Larry and Jackie Cavaletto will tell you what they have in mind and ask for your input.

2. The “Albertsons site” south of Calle Real is being purchased by Santa Barbara Airbus for a bus terminal.

PANA believes that these two projects will permanently affect the character of our neighborhood and deserve our attention. This is the one time – early in the process – where our ideas have the most impact. You should attend even if your back yard is blocks away.

Backyard Issues

Xmas Tree Farm – Noel Christmas Tree Farm is the largest undeveloped parcel in the PANA area, 25 acres at 555 Las Perlas, spanning all the way from Patterson Avenue to San Jose Creek. Failing agriculture has caused the Cavalettos to begin planning for future development of the parcel, which is surrounded by single family housing on the South, condominiums on the North, and the creek on the West. This parcel is zoned Agriculture till 2003.

The Cavalettos have contacted PANA to learn how neighborhood interests might be embraced. We have provided some broad guidance on what we believe the neighbors might NOT want, such as high density affordable housing or huge single family homes on tiny lots. We also see no reason to encourage premature rezoning from agriculture.

However, our most important suggestion was for PANA to host a meeting allowing neighbors to provide direct and personal input on their desires. We encourage all who have an interest in their neighborhood to attend the gathering at the Kellogg School auditorium on October 18 at 7 PM. NOW is the time, early in the process, for comments to be productive. The Cavalettos are listening and for that we should all be thankful.

Airbus – Santa Barbara Airbus has bought the site South of Calle Real and West of Patterson, where the gas station is. This site has been referred to as the “Albertsons site” for the past 2 years (for the huge grocery that we all chased away) and will soon be across the street from the Orchard Park housing and the Maravilla on Calle Real.

Airbus has told PANA that they plan a complete transfer of all their operations here. The plan is for a bus terminal, offices for 35 employees, parking for 125 passengers and 25 buses, and operations from 4 AM to 2 AM. The County will need to determine if the C-1 zone allows this use. Airbus will probably argue that this use will generate a lot less traffic than the huge grocery store or the proposals by JM. Others will argue the noise and pollution are unacceptable. You should provide your opinion at the meeting.

PANA was looking into whether the site could support some beneficial use, such as a school, church, affordable housing, or restaurant row (to replace Jaspers) – but this project has surfaced before we finished.

Bridges – The University Drive bridge between Patterson and Ribera is now under construction. This and the Fairview Overpass will likely be completed BEFORE the widening of Calle Real and San Jose Creek bridge, as a result of recent re-scheduling. Maybe our attention to this issue helped.

Maravilla – The 369 unit senior housing project on the North side of Calle Real has been to the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) several times over the past months – always with PANA present. The design now includes a fence extending all the way from Calle Real to the fire station along San Jose Creek and the Northern property line. This will prevent employee parking in the neighborhoods to the North. The design of the divided four lane Calle Real is final, and the landscaping of the median will be very nice.

Fairview Shopping Center/Chevron Gas Station – You probably noticed the abandoned Chevron gas station at Fairview and Calle Real. The gas station looks abandoned, surrounded by chain link, and will eventually sprout those pipes and weeds that come with the environmental cleanup process. The County has no rules requiring landscaping that hides the abandoned station for the years that it may remain an eyesore. PANA will press the shopping center for aesthetics. Do we need to worry that the entire Fairview Center will soon look abandoned as well? Jaspers has been gone for ¾ year, the gas station has closed, and it seems quite likely that a new Walgreen’s drug store on Calle Real could be the last straw for Rite Aid. Vons shows no sign of the long anticipated expansion. Leases are not being offered to some of the long-time small businesses in the center. We hope the Fairview Center will not be lost to poor management and the Big Box?

Neighborhood Traffic Cop

Planning Commission Hearing – PANA has instigated a County review of Goleta traffic congestion. On July 20 we sent a letter to the Planning Commission which requested their review of all aspects of traffic management in the area. A few days latter the Commission voted to hold such a hearing, but the date is not yet known.

We suggested that something could be improved since computer traffic models are always wrong. Every projection of Patterson area traffic 10 years into the future was realized within 2 years instead of 10. Trip factors are based upon traffic surveys from Kansas and New Mexico, instead of here. Streets and bridges are never closed or repaired in the computer model. No more traffic signals are ever planned in the computer, in spite of the fact that they are sprouting like weeds in the real world.

We also asked for new developments to be subjected to reasonable restrictions in their Conditions of Approval. Traffic fees should reflect greater impacts from part time employees than full time employees, and merely offering free bus passes should not be accepted as eliminating all employee traffic. A mere promise to avoid doing business during the rush hour should not eliminate traffic or fees. We even wonder if it is time for permits requiring that construction equipment be prohibited from using the roads during rush hour. And should each contractor be allowed to close any traffic lane on a whim during rush hour?

The slowest growth rate in Goleta is growth in use of alternative transportation. Should we only allow new development at the same rate as the increased use of alternative transportation?

Stay tuned.

Community-wide Issues

McDonalds Drive-thru – PANA has been in the forefront of appealing the Planning Commission approval of a new drive-thru at the Camino Real Marketplace, aka Big Box.

Six individual members of your PANA Board of Directors joined twelve other individuals from all corners of the community, and 6 other neighborhood organizations, in an appeal to the Board of Supervisors. This drive-thru was denied by the Board of Supervisors 3 years ago and the size of McDonalds was expanded as compensation. We feel strongly that it would be wrong to add the drive-thru now in an area so heavily impacted by congestion and pollution. The air quality analysis used to justify this drive-thru could set a dangerous precedent for all sorts of other businesses if it is not defeated.

You can all be proud of the votes against the drive-thru by the Planning Commissioners from our Goleta districts, Doreen Farr and Lansing Duncan. It is unfortunate that others who do not live here find it so easy to make decisions degrading our community.

Affordable Housing – We cannot make room for all who wish to live here without wholesale changes to the character of our community.

There is little doubt that the most intensely debated topic at present is that of affordable housing. While housing is definitely not very affordable in Goleta, it is more affordable here than anywhere else on the South Coast, as reported in the News Press. Furthermore, Goleta has been the site of almost ALL County affordable housing approvals in the past decade. Will we allow our community to become the solution to affordability needs for Montecito, Hope Ranch and Toro Canyon?

Right now, the County Planning Commission is holding a series of hearings on a new Toro Canyon Community Plan. Unfortunately, this plan and the EIR that supports it ignore impacts on areas outside the boundaries. There is no agreement yet to include affordable housing or schools. So this Toro Canyon plan can impact both Carpinteria AND Goleta, and create another exclusive enclave to boot.

Part of the problem for Goleta is that we are nearing 85% of our planned community build-out capacity. The issues of past over-development of job creating commercial space are finally coming home to roost. Much of the remaining space for housing all the new employees is in small parcels surrounded by existing low-density neighborhoods. Those neighbors do not want to suffer a dramatic change in the character of their community to solve a problem for Toro Canyon residents or those struggling to move here from LA.

The Christmas Tree farm is a relatively large example involving 25 agricultural acres into which some would squeeze 500 units. The El Encanto apartment proposal is a relatively small example involving only 1 commercial acre – but 18 units involving 3 stories. The Goleta neighborhood organizations are beginning to work together to educate elected representatives of the risks of ignoring their constituents opposition to a flood of such projects in the wrong locations.

Unfortunately, past history should have us all worried. Maravilla was approved, as was the Big Box, by a Board of Supervisors that ALL lived elsewhere. This year Toro Canyon may be turned into another enclave like Hope Ranch and next year the same may happen to Santa Ynez. Will Goleta be the dumping ground for all their affordable housing problems because we have NO Supervisor living here and only ONE Planning Commissioner living here? Not if we make our resolve crystal clear.

PANA wants to make sure you are alerted that a powerful minority are plotting to change our zoning and community plans in order to build housing for all who come here. They plan to prevent ANY additional single family housing and ONLY approve affordable housing.

When watching a Planning Commission hearing, it is possible to figure out who represents the district from which the project is coming. Every Commissioner scrutinizes a project that is proposed for THEIR district at great length. This attitude is demeaned as NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard). Unfortunately, when representatives come from far away to make “regional” decisions, they seem to exhibit the other side of the NIMBY coin all to frequently. The other side might be called an A-OKAYY-BY (Anything’s OKAY in Your Back Yard).

PANA supports other neighborhoods in resistance to things we would not want in our back yard. The next issue is a case in point.

Greenhouses – Part of the Toro Canyon debate has been over the continued expansion of greenhouse agriculture. They already have 5.1 million square feet of greenhouses and the plan is looking at another 2 million square feet. ONE Goleta greenhouse operation is planning to add 1 million square feet by converting over 25 acres of open-field agriculture to greenhouses on South Patterson Avenue. This issue is coming to Goleta.

Modern greenhouse agriculture shares a great similarity to manufacturing – with trucks delivering components to large warehouses where assembly takes place, followed by shipment of the product to remote distribution centers. Perhaps it is not much of a stretch to think of greenhouse agriculture as manufacturing that has few workers and little traffic impact by comparison with R&D facilities.

Come to think of it, would we welcome a million square feet of greenhouse agriculture to the Christmas Tree farm instead of housing? We hope that you will understand why PANA becomes involved in the McDonalds drive-thru, El Encanto apartments and Toro Canyon greenhouses. We are NIMBYs but don’t want to be A-OKAYY-Bys, because these same issues are going to come up in our own neighborhood.

Development Fees – Some issues never go away. PANA led the successful fight for development fees so that our roads and parks would not continue to be overburdened by new development that does not pay its way. A year ago the Supervisors approved large increases in fees to improve roads and buy park lands. This year they failed to raise these fees in proportion to changing conditions, so just a year later our infrastructure deficits are again increasing.

In effect, the County is saying that the cost of acquiring new park land in Goleta only increased 3% over the past year – in spite of newspaper reports of an 18% increase.

PANAspeedbump.org – Don’t forget to visit the PANA web site weekly. We post letters to officials and developers as they are sent. All the new issues show up here long before we summarize them in the newsletter. You can e-mail us here too, or directly at jackhawx@gte.net.

PANA Status Report

THANK YOU. Recipients of Speed Bump have shown their outstanding support with donations to keep us going. Well over 100 donations have come in since the last newsletter. This means that PANA now enjoys financial support from over 415 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 see the 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.

We Need You!

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.