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MyspaceIf you’re interested in the future of Goleta Beach Park, you’ll probably want to be at an evening meeting, February 16 in the County Administration Building, when a conceptual draft plan for Goleta Beach 2.0 will be presented and public comment heard.
The beach park, with more than 1.5 million visitors a year, has been dramatically modified and has lost a large percentage of its original turf, sand, and parking lots during severe winter storms between 1982 and the present.
Goleta Beach 2.0 entered the planning stages last July, following a 9-1 vote of the California Coastal Commission denying a county proposal to preserve what is left of the park and ameliorate ongoing erosion by installing permeable pilings adjacent to the existing pier. Several members of the state commission encouraged the county to look at “managed retreat” options for the park, essentially letting nature take its course and adapting to whatever changes result.
The Environmental Defense Center and local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation have been strong proponents of the managed retreat option, and worked hard to convince the Coastal Commission last summer that such a plan was vastly preferable to the county’s nourishment plan that included permeable pilings.
Erik Axelson, South County deputy director of County Parks, is heading up research and exploration of alternatives to the proposal that was denied by the state commission. Alternative park configurations and their potential fiscal, recreational, and environmental impacts will be examined in the process. Beginning last September, extensive field surveys of existing conditions, including subsurface utilities, were undertaken. Data from this work was factored into detailed computer mapping of the entire 29-acre park. The detailed Geographic Information System mapping will give a clearer picture of possible reconfigurations than would otherwise be possible, according to the Web site of the Parks Department.
While working to put together proposed options, Axelson has met with several stakeholders over the past few months, including Goleta City Councilmember Michael Bennett.
Bennett strongly encourages Goleta Valley residents and others to come to next week’s meeting and to participate in the process. “I would like very much for everyone to attend,” he said. “It’s really their park.” Bennett stressed that the public needs to hear what could be lost because of the positions of the Coastal Commission and the EDC.
“We need to reach a compromise everyone can live with,” said Bennett.
County staff has also met with representatives of utilities (high pressure natural gas, reclaimed water, wastewater, etc.) that transit portions of the park. Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf and 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr are members of an ad hoc board subcommittee for Goleta Beach 2.0.
Recent storms have resulted in considerable loss of sand at the beach, leaving much of the west end only exposed rock. The county is in the process of adding 48,000 cubic tons of sand, via trucks and barges, to the beach.
4-1-1: The draft proposal of Goleta Beach 2.0 will be reviewed and public comment taken beginning at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, February 16, in the Planning Department’s hearing room, 105 E. Anapamu St.
For additional information, go to the Santa Barbara County Web site.
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Comments
Mr. Bennett needs to review the 10+ years of proceedings regarding Goleta Beach. The Coastal Commission has been explicitly, and repeatedly clear that the County needs to MOVE BACK.
Not only that, it is in the Counties' long term interest to MOVE BACK since seas are rising in California. Sorry to break it to Mr. Bennett and Co. Parks Dept. (who has spent millions of public taxpayer dollars trying to build seawalls at Goleta Beach), but sea rise is real and it is happening now and will get worse, much worse, in the next 4-5 decades.
Mr. Bennett, check out this video and stop stumping for restaurant owners!
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sect...
4Oceans (anonymous profile)
February 9, 2010 at 8:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is Bennett stoking the flames? unfortunate---as an elected official of a neighboring jurisdiction, seems he might prefer to withhold comment till he at least sees the plan/concept.
sbsleuth99 (anonymous profile)
February 9, 2010 at 7:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Is not the sand erosion not a result of storms, but a result of dams? While the storm may erase the sand at the beach, it is storms that bring the new sediment to the beach. Dams prevent that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goleta_B...
Bird (anonymous profile)
February 10, 2010 at 12:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
First of all if they would stop dredging a channel in the slough in the wrong place everytime the slough fills up.
The slough wants to empty out much farther south than the park officials would like....so they keep brining in these hideous catipillars and digging a channel....that in one week fills up....and then proceeds to rob the rest of the area of sand.
If they have to dig a ditch....dig it where the slough wants to drain....far down the beach towards SB....you can plainly see that that is the natural drainage point.
But NO...the park, county....whoever....seems to think they know better.
This summer we had the most incredible flat beach at the base of the parking lot...until the cat skinner screwed it all up.....didn't even clean up his mess....you could see the cat tracks for a month afterwards.
They dig that channel out and then you have to cross over the wade thru the smelly slough to get to the beach!
I called the county supervisors office and they went down and took pictures of the rape of the beach....but they couldn't do anything about it. Or wouldn't.
As far as the NEW project....I have not seen one drop of sand....they are dumping MUD and it is dissolving as quick as they drop it.
Perhaps if we lined up the coastal commission and used them as a sand barrier, that would be more beneficial.
rstein9 (anonymous profile)
February 10, 2010 at 5:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BACK UP.
Leave the coast alone, it takes care of itself. When you start mucking up the coastline, that's when the sand leaves certain areas.
There is no reason to think that sea levels are going to rise very much, if any, during the next few decades. The planet was much warmer from 1000 AD - 1300 AD, but the sea levels were about the same. If you study long-term climate change, you know that all of this "global warming" stuff is a hoax.. CO2 is not bad. That's no reason to dump toxic stuff into our environment or destroy our coastlines.
loonpt (anonymous profile)
February 10, 2010 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
4Oceans. Obviously, you could care less about those of us who use the beach. Restaurant Owners? What a joke. My family has been going there for 50+ years. Bet you're a transplant. My wife takes our kids and their school groups there weekly and none of them own a restaurant. Your logic that the ocean is rising, so we should retreat sucks. Sooner or later, do you honestly think CalTrans is going to let 217 wash away? Or the airport? The seawall will go up, sooner or later to protect these projects. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. What is on the table now is how much of goleta beach are we going to try to save.
The plan that Surfrider and EDC brought forth in July of last year was a farce. It called for a plan that had no plan to stop any erosion beyond their rear plan designs (in other words, if erosion went beyone what they foresaw, no place to stop it), 8 ft (compact care parking) spaces to hide the fact their plan led to a loss of over 250 spaces, and eliminate the Rangers on site. In other words, no supervision (public safety) at a highly used beach.
One last thought. If you read the minutes of last months, or maybe it was December's Coastal Commission meeting, Sarah Wan, the chair of the CC was in favor of a seawall to protect homes in Malibu. Sure, let the CC members keep the beaches around their home areas and experiment with managed retreat at Goleta Beach. Their mantra, Save the homes of the rich and famous and the hell with the residents of Goleta. Go to the meeting and let your voices be heard. Maybe pass around a hat. I hear support from the Environmental Defence Center is going for around $100,000
BeachFan (anonymous profile)
February 12, 2010 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)