Back to the Future
New Goleta Beach Plan Moves Ahead
Nature has had Goleta Beach Park in its sights for as long as anybody can remember. After all, there are just certain inescapable, eroding realities when you build a hugely popular county park wedged between the Pacific Ocean and one of the larger sloughs in the area. But with more than 1.5 million visitors enjoying the park each year, not to mention three major utility lines running beneath its parking lots, there aren’t too many folks in Santa Barbara County interested in letting the ocean and sand reclaim the neighborhood.
With this in mind, and writing the latest chapter in a twisting and turning planning process that is currently 11 years old and counting, Santa Barbara County’s supervisors plotted yet another new course of action this week that they hope — by being decidedly more eco-friendly than previous incarnations — will not just protect the park for the long haul but even work to improve it. “Goleta Beach is something we all treasure,” summed up 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf, shortly before the approving votes were cast. “With this plan, we get a larger place for the beach while still maintaining or even enhancing the park itself … Who could possibly be against it?”
Well, for starters, about half of the 20 public commenters on Tuesday afternoon — including County Parks Commissioner Suzanne Perkins and Goleta City Councilmember Michael Bennett — aren’t nearly as enthused as the supes. (It should be noted that the plan was approved 3-0 with Salud Carbajal absent and Joe Centeno abstaining.) Since 1999, county officials and assorted other stakeholders have been working to develop a plan that would best ensure the park’s survival in the face of erosion. Stop-gap measures like rock walls erected on emergency permits (these permits, which were granted by the California Coastal Commission, have since expired) and truckloads of imported sand have helped keep the Pacific at bay, but a long-term solution — one that balanced environmental sensitivities with actual park-saving results — was anything but easy.
