County policies protecting rural areas at risk of repeal

 

ALERT: Long-standing county policies that have protected rural Santa Barbara County from sprawling, urban-style development are being threatened by change. Your help is needed to stop this attempt.

To the benefit of all of us who live here, Santa Barbara County has held off the development pressures that have turned other Southern California coastal counties (e.g. San Diego and Orange) into ugly, sprawling zones of urban development.

In addition, our county also has resisted the pressures that have led counties like Napa to turn once idyllic rural valleys into traffic nightmares, overrun with tourists.

 

By failing to properly control this urban-style development, these other counties have lost much of their agricultural productivity, their rural character and their livability.

These critically important Santa Barbara County General Plan policies are:

• Commercial development shall occur only within designated urban areas — not on agricultural land.

• Urban density housing shall occur only within designated urban areas — not on agricultural land.

These policies are of enormous significance because 90 percent of the privately owned land in Santa Barbara County has agricultural zoning.

However, in the past four years (coincident with the Firestone era), there has been a flow of proposals that would erode, or even repeal these policies. For example:

• The revisions to the Uniform Rules (as initially proposed) would have permitted bed and breakfasts and unrestricted-use housing on tax subsidized, ag-zoned parcels. Also proposed were commercial ventures and retail operations that had no agricultural relationship. Fortunately, these proposals were defeated.

• The North Hills proposal was for 7,500 homes and 2 million square feet of commercial development on ag-zoned land — both of these critical Santa Barbara County Policies were proposed to be changed to enable this “new town” of 30,000 people.

• Supervisor Firestone’s recent attempt to get approval for up to 32 “special events” (i.e. parties for profit at his Crossroads property would have converted this ag-zoned land into a location for a commercial entertainment business.)

• Now, an application by the La Purisima Golf Course to build an 80-room hotel and 85 timeshares on ag-zoned land, again requests to break these all-important policies.

 

This extended record gives the appearance that a lame-duck, pro-development board majority is trying one last time to set this county up for sprawling development.

Ironically, during the same four year period, the state of California has come to recognize the importance of policies like these and the huge social and environmental costs of not having policies like these to guide development. Therefore, two important new state laws have been passed to achieve the goals of protecting agricultural lands and focusing urban development: Assembly Bill 32 and Senate Bill 375.

We really do not want Sacramento making laws for us. The risk for us is that without these land use policies the Santa Ynez Valley could deteriorate into another over-crowded Napa Valley, and the Gaviota Coast could decline into another Malibu.

 

Urban developments such as commercial activities, resorts and higher density housing require critical urban services such as roads, water, wastewater, fire protection, police and emergency medical services to safely serve the public. The county is unprepared to adequately provide these critical services in remote rural areas. Very few residents would benefit from changing these policies, and most would suffer a loss in quality of life. The primary beneficiaries would be a few large landowners and developers, many from outside the county.

Santa Barbara County is different, and better, because of the specific policies to preserve agriculture. Here is how you can help: As soon as possible, let the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission know that you oppose the amendments to the county General Plan, which are associated with the La Purisima application.

Mail to: the Santa Barbara County Planning Development Hearing Support, 123 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101 or e-mail: jopland@co.santa-barbara.ca.us.