Santa Barbara County Puts Lid on Party Profiteers in Isla Vista

Without any dissent, the county supervisors approved new public nuisance language that will make it easier for  sheriff’s deputies to pull the plug on the growing phenomenon of for-profit parties held in Isla Vista, not to mention street concerts and, of course, Deltopia. This year’s Deltopia, Lt. Garrett TeSlaa reported, turned into a mass casualty event with one death — a fentanyl overdose — 60 medical calls for service, and 33 hospital transports in less than 72 hours. 

Part of the problem, TeSlaa told the supervisors, was that the existing laws are unduly cumbersome. Deputies are currently required to personally witness three unsafe behaviors from a long laundry list of proscribed activities before declaring a party a public nuisance and shutting it down. Under the new rules, it will require the deputies to observe just one. 

Violations will now be charged as misdemeanors, and the penalties will be higher fines. 

TeSlaa described how Isla Vista has attracted guerilla promoters who “hire” out an apartment space from which to throw a party and charge attendees $20 for tickets of admission and then sell alcohol. Such parties, he said, can draw hundreds if not thousands of people, jamming the streets and public spaces. Such numbers — even when sober, he said — are problematic, and give rise to sexual assault, fistfights, and inebriated attendees falling from balconies or blufftops.