CREEK PLANS CRAWL FORWARD:

After many years of talk and delay, an eco-friendly,
natural-bottomed, scaled-back flood control plan for lower Mission
Creek is finally going back to the California Coastal Commission
for review and approval. Discussions about fixing Mission Creek
date back to 1962, which may account for the geriatric jokes that
dominated Tuesday’s Santa Barbara City Council discussion. It’s
been five years since the Coastal Commission sent the plans back to
City Hall and the Army Corps of Engineers for changes. The required
changes focused on protecting the tidewater goby, a small but
endangered fish living in what one property owner refers to as
“Sewer Lagoon.” Today, environmentalists are giving the revisions a
solid thumbs-up. David Pritchett of the Creeks Committee exhorted
the council to plan for Mission Creek in its entirety, rather than
in small stretches running from Carrillo to the ocean. City
Councilmember Brian Barnwell concurred emphatically, and bemoaned
the dearth of planning for creeks, lamenting, “The lack of it
screams at me.”