Article taken from the Santa
Barbara News Press Ellwood Mesa drive reaches
$20 million goal By
THOMAS SCHULTZ 01/04/05
Organizers who spent the past two years raising money to preserve Ellwood Mesa declared victory Monday after reaching their $20.4 million goal. A $307,000 check from a donor who wished to remain anonymous put the drive over the top, representatives from the Trust for Public Land said. "This last contribution is like the star on top of the tree," Goleta Councilwoman Margaret Connell said. She noted that donations large and small helped the effort. "It's very exciting. It's been a long road." "Hallelujah!" Councilwoman Cynthia Brock added. "This is a red letter day. We have an incredibly generous community. It never fails to astound me." Ellwood Mesa is a seasonal monarch butterfly habitat. It is home to vernal pools and native grasslands, and it is used by visitors who walk, jog, bike, horseback ride, bird watch or simply cross to the beach below. The money from more than 3,800 contributors is planned for a complex land swap announced in 2002. The trust would buy the 137-acre property from Comstock Homes and Development Partners, then give it to Goleta as a park that would become a major piece of a larger Ellwood-Devereux Open Space spanning Goleta, Santa Barbara County and UCSB land. Goleta in turn would give the developer-owners a portion of nearby Santa Barbara Shores Park -- farther from the fragile shore than the Ellwood property -- where Comstock could now build 62 homes. The remaining open space would feature new or reconditioned trails and other improvements. The Comstock housing proposal is expected to go to the state Coastal Commission for consideration on Jan. 12 with a staff recommendation for approval. A $400,000 contribution from the county brought the total needed by mid-December down to $350,000. Additional contributions totaling $43,000 followed before the anonymous donor, a resident of the area for more than 10 years, stepped forward to close the gap. Overall, the county contributed $768,000 in coastal protection money generated from offshore drilling, some from excess royalties paid the state and some from mitigation programs. The Goleta Valley Land Trust kicked in $1 million, the state $10 million and the federal government nearly $800,000 in recent months. Top private donors included part-time residents Peter and Stephanie Sperling, who pledged $5 million, and the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation, whose director is the owner of the News-Press, which pledged $1 million. Additional funds or pledges accepted through Jan. 31 by the Trust for Public Land in partnership with Friends of the Ellwood Coast will go toward expenses including a donors monument at the popular bluff-top park and possibly an endowment to care for the property, recently named the Sperling Preserve.
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