Article taken from the Santa Barbara News Press 
Published with permission

The Future of the Eastern Gaviota Coast

Voice From Santa Barbara; Bob Keats

 

5/2/03

 

In 1991, when I decided to try to start a campaign to create a national seashore on the eastern Gaviota coast, the metaphorical handwriting was on the wall for the coastline I love; and that writing consisted of one word: urbanization.

The last undeveloped coastal plateau in Southern California, from Haskell's Beach to El Capitan, was under siege. Development had been approved for Haskell's Beach, and proposals for development of most of the rest of the seven-mile shoreline of the eastern Gaviota coastal plateau soon would follow.

When I first contacted the National Park Service, my concept for a national seashore included only the land between the freeway and the ocean, from Sandpiper Golf Course to El Capitan. My goal was to try to keep the eastern Gaviota coast as it was, to keep it rural, and to help farming and ranching families to stay on their land and to continue their way of life, in spite of the growth-inducing impacts of approaching urbanization.

Despite my arthritic illness, I was still, at heart, a surfer, and I wanted young people in the future to be able to experience the extraordinary beauty, natural environment and rural character of this coastline as I had experienced it when I was young, healthy, and able to hike and surf along the eastern Gaviota coast.

However, since 1991, the environment and beauty of the land at Haskell's Beach have been destroyed by the construction of the Bacara Resort. To the west of Haskell's, due to the developer's litigation, the Dos Pueblos Golf Course Project still threatens to destroy the wildlife habitats and agricultural land -- including more than 90 acres of prime agricultural soils -- of one mile of coastline between Eagle Canyon Creek and Naples.

At Naples, a memorandum of understanding has been approved by county government that allows for the urbanization of hundreds of acres of ranch land.

In addition, development has previously been proposed for Las Varas Ranch, between Naples and El Capitan. Las Varas reportedly was for sale at a price no farmer or rancher could afford.

The travesty at Haskell's Beach, the county's approval of the Dos Pueblos Golf Course project, and the approval of the Naples memorandum of understanding are all the result of local control, which obviously is not an effective strategy for protecting the eastern Gaviota coast from the destructive, growth-inducing impacts of urbanization.

Given that local control already has failed to protect the shoreline of the eastern Gaviota coast, and given the westward spread of urbanization, how can the Gaviota coast be protected?

Any proposal that would effectively protect the region from Haskell's Beach to Gaviota must meet four essential criteria:

* Permanence. It must provide protection that can't be altered at the local or state levels.

* Comprehensiveness. It must protect the agricultural, biological, scenic, cultural, historical and recreational resources.

* Resource management. It must provide a means for managing those resources that can be protected.

* Funding. It must provide adequate funds, not only for the cost of management, but also for the cost of purchasing development rights and properties from those landowners who want to sell.

This is the challenge: What is the best way to meet these criteria for preserving the eastern Gaviota coast?

The only proposal, so far, that meets all of the essential criteria for protecting the area -- Haskell's Beach to Gaviota -- is a federal designation, such as a national seashore.

In addition, the eastern coast meets all of the criteria of national significance that the National Park Service has established for determining whether an area under consideration qualifies for federal protection, and it meets the criteria of suitability for inclusion in the National Park System.

With regard to feasibility, thousands of acres of coastal open space and agricultural land currently are for sale on the eastern Gaviota coast for approximately $200 million. All of this land could be purchased for less than half of the price of one stealth bomber that costs $500 million.

A national seashore designation would provide access to the necessary funding. It also would provide permanent resource protection, and allow private agricultural operations to continue.

Establishment of such a designation wouldn't involve condemnation of land. However, I would encourage those who are opposed to a federal designation to try to develop a specific alternative proposal that more effectively meets the four essential criteria for the Gaviota coast: permanence, comprehensiveness, resource management and funding.

Moreover, the Gaviota coast contains the last significant stretch of undeveloped rural coastal land in Southern California.

I would like to help to establish permanent and comprehensive protection for the eastern Gaviota coast that allows private property owners to continue to live on their land, that allows and helps farmers and ranchers to continue agricultural production, and that conserves the ranching legacy of the region.

I want people who live here or who visit here 50 or 100 years from now to look back with gratitude at our efforts to protect our irreplaceable coastal resources.

If you are concerned about the future of the eastern Gaviota coast, please attend the National Park Service Draft Feasibility Study forums that will be held in our county today through Thursday.

 

 

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