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Santa Barbara Audubon Society
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The University of California at Santa Barbara purchased property in the Devereux watershed in 1994 with the intention of building faculty and student housing on the property. The tight and expensive housing market makes if difficult to recruit faculty, and the University has made a commitment to the County of Santa Barbara to provide housing for a percentage of students.
The University proposed 100 faculty housing units on West Campus, and 413 dwelling units on North Campus, 269 for faculty and 117 student units. Many segments of the community have opposed the proposed 122 units of faculty housing proposed for the area known as the "South Parcel" which is located between the Ocean Meadows Golf Course and the Coal Oil Point Reserve (COPR). Santa Barbara Audubon has retained the Environmental Defense Center to assist us in opposing negative impacts to the wetlands, native grasslands and raptor habitat on the South Parcel. Access is a major concern, as the current "Arizona crossing" is at the upper edge of the remaining Devereux Slough, without the 100-foot setback required by current regulations. Relocating the primary access and providing a secondary access would both have significant negative impacts to Devereux creek and wetlands. The state-listed Belding's Savannah Sparrow has been seen foraging at the crossing.
On a tour of the South Parcel with Chancellor Yang on March 3, 1999, the group participants observed a Burrowing Owl, Belding's Savannah Sparrow, and foraging White-tailed Kites. This demonstrated the high ecological value of the site, despite its history of disturbance. In the 1960s, the South Parcel mesa was scraped to fill in the upper Devereux Slough to create the Ocean Meadows Golf Course, leaving a narrow creek channel.
The "Final Report on the North Campus Project for Chancellor Henry Yang, University of California-Santa Barbara" was released by the North Campus Advisory Group in November, 1999. This group of faculty made recommendations to the Chancellor in an attempt to "balance the University's need for affordable housing with the community's concerns about the loss of open space and possible environmental degradation." They recommended that the South Parcel be designated open space as an interim measure, add 40 acres to the COPR, and proceed with development of the northern and eastern parcels of North Campus and West Campus. The ultimate fate of the South Parcel would depend on housing alternatives to building on the South parcel.
Audubon maintains that areas which qualify as Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas under the Coastal Act require protection and cannot be developed. These include much of the South Parcel, but also areas of the northern and eastern parcels. We will follow this issue to protect the wetlands and habitat values of this valuable coastal property.
The University hired a consultant to prepare an updated wetlands map of the UCSB North Campus which was available in August, 2000. Audubon members have reviewed the map on site, and have found some additional wetland areas which have not been mapped. We will be meeting with UCSB planners, requesting mapping of wetlands on adjacent properties, and other ESH areas such as native bunchgrass and raptor nest sites. We can then discuss the areas which are feasible for housing development on these parcels. We have a goal, shared by many local environmental groups, to have the South Parcel permanently protected. Areas such as the area currently used as the golf course driving range, but owned by the university, are suitable for housing development, with appropriate setbacks for wetlands.
The Ellwood Mesa west of the Coal Oil Point Reserve has had numerous development proposals in the last 12 years. This development is on the mesa adjacent to the largest overwintering site of Monarch butterflies on the South Coast. In April 1998, the California Coastal Commission required major changes for the 155-unit subdivision-including a wider buffer between the Eucalyptus grove utilized by the Monarchs, and an alternate access route, suggesting access be through the neighboring Santa Barbara Shores County Park!
Since then, the developer Randy Fox has tried to side-step the Coastal Commission requirements by going back to the approved 1995 Specific Plan with a new development plan submitted March 1999. He states that this plan meets the 1997settlement agreement which resulted from a lawsuit by Save Ellwood Shores.
The County of Santa Barbara declared the application to be incomplete in April 1999. The County is revising the Specific Plan, which includes both the Monarch Point property and the Santa Barbara Shores County Park. The EIR will evaluate the impacts of a suggested "land swap" in which the development would be allowed adjacent to Hollister Avenue on the current park property, and the entire mesa from Devereux Creek to the bluffs would remain open space. Audubon supports evaluation of this option, as a possible way to preserve the best of the biological resources and habitat values in the area.
On April 6, 2000, the Environmental Defense Center reached a settlement with the developer of Monarch Point, on behalf of Save Ellwood Shores and the League for Coastal Protection. With this settlement, in which the developer agrees not to build on environmentally sensitive habitat, a lawsuit was withdrawn. The groups feel they may have achieved better protection of biological resources and buffers of sensitive habitats than they would have if they have gone to court.
The goals of the several groups dedicated to protection of the Ellwood Coast are
In 1991, the County of Santa Barbara purchased 119 acres then known as the Conner-Knil property for $11.5 million for a county park. In 1993, the Parks Department released a plan for intensive active recreation development on the site. Many members of the community who had attended the public planning sessions and/or participated in the survey felt that passive recreation was the highest priority for this coastal property.
In 1997, a massive soil remediation project was undertaken, to remove soil contaminated by the former oil activities on the site. Audubon and Urban Creeks Council members participated in the salvage of native wetland plants in Devereux Creek, and in replanting the site after the soil remediation was completed.
In January, 2001,the Board of Supervisors agreed to abandon the 1993 Park Master Plan. Based on new information of vernal pools, native grasslands, and riparian corridors, they recognize that no more than 40 acres of the site can be developed while preserving the biological resources on the site. A new park plan will be developed. Santa Barbara Audubon supports only passive recreation with only native plant restoration/landscaping south of Devereux Creek. Hiking and biking are appropriate uses for this area.
Winter storms in late February 2000 eroded a swath of the lawn area up to 35-feet wide in Goleta Beach County Park. Concerned that the bathroom facilities, sewer and water lines were threatened, Santa Barbara County Parks sought and obtained an emergency permit for a rock revetment from Planning and Development. Now in place is a 1000-foot long, 3,000-ton boulder wall.
Many local groups, including the South Coast Watershed Alliance, of which Audubon is a member, and Surfriders, protested to the Board of Supervisors April 18, 2000, the placement of the rock revetment, especially without any environmental review. Most of the testimony stated that the primary resource of Goleta Beach Park is the beach rather than the lawn, and the boulders can exacerbate the loss of sand from the beach. Audubon is especially concerned about the impact to the foraging site on the beach of the state-threatened Belding's Savannah Sparrow.
By January 2001, the rock seawall had been removed, and a temporary sand berm had been constructed to protect the upland sandspit area of the park. This needs to be replenished after major storms. In addition, the sediments from Goleta Slough dredging have been deposited on the northern end of the beach, so that wave action can separate the sand from organic material and supplement the beach sand. This is feasible when the sand particle size is compatible with the beach sand; for the year 2000-2001 the dredging material is compatible. For a longer term solution, beach replenishment from sand mined from offshore is being evaluated.
The Corps of Engineers and the City of Santa Barbara have proposed a plan for Lower Mission Creek, which is "designed to balance the need for controlling urban flooding during heavy winter storms and the desire of local environmental groups and government officials to restore natural habitats along Mission Creek" Thus states a News-Press article January 20, 2000, following a conversation with city planner Jan Hubbell.
After decades of rejected plans and residents' fatigue at flooding on average every five years in the neighborhoods around lower Mission Creek, the CORPS and the city think they have come up with a plan that balances these needs. Santa Barbara Audubon commented on the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in several areas:
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information contacts:
Chapter office address:
5679 Hollister Ave., Suite 5b
Goleta, CA 93117
805-964-1468
Chapter email: audubon@rain.org
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Updated: July 2, 2002
