Community Members Talk Garden Use and Trail Access for Project Near San Ysidro Ranch

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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Planting and landscaping on a piece of land near one of Montecito’s luxury hotels is either habitat enhancement or a botanical garden depending on who you ask. Santa Barbara County’s Trails Advisory Committee discussed the project and its potential impact on a nearby public trail at its June 8 meeting, marking the first public hearing on a project that has community members asking questions. 

Bushes, grass, and trees, including coast live oaks and redwoods, grow on the spindle-like stretch of land in the Montecito foothills. A public hiking trail, McMenemy Trail, lines the northern perimeter of the property and billionaire Ty Warner’s San Ysidro Ranch, where rooms start at more than $2,800 per night, is located nearby. Warner, in turn, owns the two limited liability companies — Hill Road Ventures LLC and San Ysidro BB Property LLC — who own the two parcels that make up the site. 

This site burned in the 2017 Thomas Fire. A 2023 Revised Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Plan for the area, authored by a biological consulting service, says that San Ysidro BB Property was working to reduce the fire load in the area, taking out trees and debris that had burned in the fire. As part of that work, the team violated their permit, removing native vegetation from an environmentally sensitive habitat area. 

In 2022, the LLC acquired another permit for habitat restoration. That permit allowed the company to mitigate the damage done in the environmentally sensitive area and enhance a surrounding area by removing invasive non-native plants and adding native plants. 

Last June, San Ysidro Ranch applied to revise that habitation restoration permit, adding new paths, ponds, and plants, including a grove of coastal redwoods, to the plan. Some of the now-proposed plants are on the Santa Barbara County Fire Department’s undesirable plant list. The revised architectural plans for the project are titled “Botanical Gardens Layout Plan.” 

This revision is labeled a “minor permit change,” and the county’s Planning Department marks it as “in review.”

At the meeting, Mark Lloyd of L&P Consulting represented San Ysidro Ranch. He called the area in question a “non-environmentally sensitive habitat replanting area.” 

Lloyd said the new plan, which includes shallow ponds for wildlife, is an attempt to improve on the original concept and will not impinge on McMenemy Trail. The area itself, he said, will be for hotel guests only, will not include any lighting, and will not host weddings or concerts.

“This is fulfilling our approved land use permit with a revision,” he said. “I suppose I can always withdraw the revision and go out and plant because I already have that approval, but we’re trying to do something better here, and I think it’s just been misunderstood a bit,” he said. 

Changes to land use and permits fall into the Planning Department’s domain. But the county Riding and Hiking Trails Advisory Committee hears concerns regarding trail use and access. At the June 8 meeting, community members raised concern over how the new garden plans would impact McMenemy Trail, which borders the northern portion of the garden. 

Dave Everett, a Montecito local and longtime trail user, has watched changes at the site for years while hiking local trails, documenting much of it in his spare time. He said that he’s reported plants encroaching from the property into the easement, and the fence along the trail bending into the trail area. 

Everett and other community members talked about what was being planted, including the proposed redwood grove. Although the permit changes are “under review,” redwood trees are already in the ground, with the nearest about 10 feet from the edge of the trail. At the meeting, Lloyd said the trees were still in their boxes. 

“Those are giant trees, and that probably will be a problem for trail use, being that they’re enormous, and they have a huge root system, and they could impede trail users in that area,” Everett said. 

Lloyd said the trees will be angled downstream, and their root system will grow down, rather than toward the path. 

Coast redwood trees are native to northern and central California; their range starts in North San Luis Obispo County and spreads to southern Oregon. The trees, which are fire resistant in adulthood, need stable temperatures, summer fog, and winter rains to grow. The Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens’s tallest redwood stands at 160 feet. 

Another community concern was the risk of non-native plants mixing DNA with native plants and spreading a hybrid plant to environmentally sensitive habitat. Generally, unintended hybrid plants can put native species at risk. One community member pointed out two plant species on the list — Allen Chickering sage and red-flowered buckwheat — are known to hybridize with native plants in the area. Lloyd responded that the project has a county-approved biologist selecting the plants, and he would bring this up as a concern. 

The Trails Advisory Committee is limited in its capacity to make change. The committee can advise on discretionary projects that impact the trails — those are projects that the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors vote on for approval. The minor permit revision that grants approval for the botanical garden change is ministerial — that means planning staff can approve it without a vote. 

Lloyd could not be reached for comment in time for this story.