GAUCHO GOSSIP

Critics of a UCSB faculty housing plan walked out of a Goleta
City Council meeting in disgust on Monday night when a lame duck
council majority voted to give the plan conditional approval. The
letter of approval will help the North Campus Housing Plan pass
muster when it comes before the California Coastal Commission (CCC)
on Friday. The council had previously vowed to oppose the 122 units
west of Storke Road until remaining citizen concerns – including
public access routes and construction hours – were addressed.
However, the councilmembers decided they would rather take their
chances with the CCC now than trust their successors to continue to
battle UCSB for the concessions.

As of press time Tuesday, Isla Vistans and Isla Vista lovers
were on tenterhooks over a proposed law to boost parking fees
across the densely populated student town. The new law would result
in time-limited metered parking in coastal access areas, a
time-limited parking zone encompassing the downtown commercial
center, and a community-wide metered parking zone without time
limits everywhere else. I.V. residents would be offered passes for
between $95 and $150 a year, while non-residents would be offered
passes costing up to $430 a year. The California Coastal Commission
was slated to vote on the law on Wednesday.

The Board of Supervisors voted last week to create a committee
to study ways to end the yearly Halloween revelry in Isla Vista.
How the committee, which comprises Brooks Firestone and Joni Gray,
might go about achieving such a goal remains unknown. A seeming
blow to the project is the fact that the Sheriff’s Department
characterized this year’s celebration as a success, with fewer
arrests, assaults, and tickets than in years past. This year’s I.V.
Halloween festivities resulted in 13,000 pounds of trash, all of
which was picked up by Adopt-a-Block, a volunteer cleanup
program.

An investigation by the Santa Barbara County Public Health
Department (SBPHD) into a recent outbreak of salmonella poisoning
in Isla Vista has ended without any proof of the source of the
bacteria. In late September, UCSB Student Health began treating
students suffering from the illness, and by October 13, SBPHD had
confirmed 17 cases, with 19 more patients exhibiting symptoms; none
of the patients required hospitalization. SBPHD senior
epidemiologist Amy Bellomy said that a likely source of the
bacteria was local food workers, but tests of restaurant workers
were negative.