Article taken from the Santa Barbara News Press 
Published with permission

New tactics may be needed to preserve land

By JUNE RICH
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

A developer reveals his plan to pave over some patch of beloved Santa Barbara County coastline or tender tract of foothills. The community utters a collective gasp, forms a committee, raises money (often with help from a land trust) and buys the land outright, or at least pays to preserve it. The land is saved.

Up until now, the stories usually had fairy tale endings -- the Carpinteria Bluffs, Girsh Park, the Douglas Family Preserve, Fairview Gardens, pieces of the Gaviota Coast, Point Sal, Sedgewick Ranch.

But those days may be coming to an end, according to a recent report about the county's remaining open space: "Santa Barbara County 2030: The Open Lands."

The cities are running out of room to build -- four have no land for new housing proposals, three have less than 25 acres -- and developers will likely look to our surrounding open space to accommodate all the people who want to live here.

If the community wants to preserve its most precious open spaces, it will need to move beyond the time-honored tactic of saving land only when it is under threat from development, the report says.

Why?

Because there isn't enough money in the community to buy it all.

"We can't afford to. In dollars, it would be billions and billions," said Elise Dale, project manager on the report, part of a series that looks 30 years into the future to help local decision-makers grapple with growth policies in the coming years.

"But also, we need to provide housing for the people who are going to live here, and to figure out where it will go. It's not responsible for government not to provide housing."

By the most conservative estimates, the county will grow by at least 160,000 people in the next 30 years, a 40 percent increase over today's population -- new housing that would cover acreage roughly twice the size of Goleta. Ms. Dale said the lion's share of that growth won't be people moving here, but babies born to current residents.

"By responding to each situation as development is proposed, you're taking away the opportunity to decide which lands are going to be preserved," Ms. Dale said. "If you preserve the next three as proposals come forward, then you might not be able to preserve the fourth because the money will be gone. But that one might happen to be the most resource-rich environmentally, or really important agriculture. Do you want to make that decision proactively, or have it made for you by coincidence of when the developer comes forward?"

Mark de la Garza, of the Citizens Planning Association, said big-picture planning will be essential to saving vital habitat and species.

"This piecemeal approach is not the way to go," he said. "We need to maintain ecological processes, habitat connectivity and corridors. That takes a broad view, and better planning right up front."

Despite the concern about dwindling open space, more than 90 percent of the county is still in open land. But half of that is in the private hands of agriculture. The Los Padres National Forest and Vandenberg Air Force Base take up almost all of the rest, with less than 2 percent of that open space in parks or preserves.

If the past is any prelude, a lot of farmland will be lost in the next 30 years, in part because it doesn't tend to inspire the same emotions as other areas such as the Gaviota Coast. Urban uses overtook more than 14,000 acres of agriculture in the last three decades.

"It's unfortunate for me, that the crops I know how to grow are grown where people like to live best," said Ken Doty, president of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau and an avocado and citrus grower in Ellwood. "In terms of Farm Bureau policy, we encourage infill and efficiency of already urbanized areas first, because we think that any sort of urban infrastructure ought to be in place as development occurs."

The land immediately adjacent to cities will feel the most pressure. Many already have development proposals in the pipeline.

A perfect case study is the Wye, 332 acres of grassland, chaparral and riparian forest, a greenbelt between Lompoc, Mesa Oaks and Vandenberg Village. A total of 519 housing units are proposed there now, and an additional 300 are allowed under the present zoning.

But even if the entire Wye is built out at the allowed levels of density, it would not come close to housing the anticipated population expected to swell Lompoc over the next 30 years. Lompoc would need almost five Wyes -- more than than 1,500 acres -- to meet the need.

That scenario plays out in innumerable, often vexing ways throughout the county.

The Santa Barbara area, for example, will need to house another 25,000 people in the coming years.

Should it turn to the San Marcos Foothills, the largest remaining foothill area on the urban South Coast, consisting of 400 rolling acres near Highway 154?

Proposals to build on the foothills all have withered under community opposition in years past. Now a developer has proposed building just 20 mega-mansions there (down from the 550 once proposed by another) in order to save much of the acreage as a preserve.

But if the proposal goes through, and much of the land is saved, then the community will have built only 20 houses, and for whom? More important, it will need to look elsewhere to build homes for the thousands and thousands of other new residents.

Should that occur in the pockets of undeveloped land in the Las Positas Valley? Or perhaps north, in the agricultural fields of the Goleta Valley?

Ms. Dale said the first step should involve a comprehensive inventory of the open lands throughout the county. Her report attempts to capture the big pieces, but is not exhaustive.

Then the community could begin selecting what it wants to preserve, based on factors such as views and access, sensitive species habitat, agricultural value and watershed protection.

Finally, the county and its cities could consider creating "open space" zoning for the most important pieces of land. It's important to note, however, that a piece of land designated open space can be "un-designated" on any given Tuesday by a 3-2 vote of the county Board of Supervisors.

Other, permanent solutions might include new developer fees or sales taxes to acquire land, more use of conservation easements, which essentially buy the development rights to certain parcels, or allowing greater density projects in land already set aside for housing.

Strategies for Saving Open Space:

* Developer fees already pay for roads, schools and parks. A new "open space" fee could be created, to acquire and preserve land.

* Temporary sales taxes have successfully funded transportation improvements in the past, and could be used for land preservation. Voters approve the tax, which either expires automatically or goes back to the ballot for renewal at a predetermined date.

* Conservation easements permanently restrict the development potential of a property. The property owner still owns the land, entering into an agreement with the government or a nonprofit in exchange for payment. Payment is often about one-third of the property's market value, essentially the difference between its value with and without the easement. An easement also can reduce the owner's property and estate taxes when passing the land on to heirs.

* Transfer of development credits allows an owner to transfer one property's development potential to another piece of land, and get paid for it by the recipient. The new site is often more appropriate for urban development, and closer to roads, transit and commercial centers. Sites eligible for transfer and receipt of development credits could be identified in the county's general plan.

* Increased development density simply allows more homes on less space, through zoning.

* Urban infill means building on parcels within cities. Communities can offer financial incentives to developers, or can require that certain infill parcels be developed before projects on outlying lands are considered.

Copies of "Santa Barbara County 2030: The Open Lands" are available at local libraries throughout the county, and at the county's Planning and Development offices in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria for $20. Call 569-2000 for more information.

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