LAND AND SEA

The county is seeking state economic development funds for a
proposed Vandenberg Air Force Base visitors’ center. The county
supervisors are asking for $35,000 to analyze the traffic impacts
of the proposed California Space Center, which is to include a
launch viewing area.

The county officially executed a contract dedicating $24,500
toward construction of the Carpinteria Old Town Trail, leading from
downtown to the Carpinteria State Beach campground. A
phytoremediation system, in which plants will be used to clean
pollution from urban runoff before the water flows into the
Carpinteria Salt Marsh, will border the trail along Palm Avenue,
along with interpretive signs. The money comes from Coastal
Restoration and Enhancement Funds, which in turn come from oil
development mitigation fees.

North County supervisors splashed cold water on plans for a
brand new bureaucratic device intended to protect the Gaviota
coast. If successful, the apparatus would implement Transfer of
Development Rights (TDR), a strategy for preserving rural and wild
lands by diverting would-be builders into more urban areas. County
staff were set to proceed with a proposed ordinance, land-banking
framework, and interjurisdictional agreement until Supervisors Joni
Gray, Joe Centeno, and Brooks Firestone expressed concern that the
project would create more hoops for developers to jump through.
Pending a more exhaustive hearing, the supervisors allowed staff to
proceed with the TDR study as long as it applies only to the
proposed Naples project, whose developer, Matt Osgood, is willing
to transfer some development.