Article taken from the Santa
Barbara News Press
Published with permission
State warns county
on Gaviota review
January 31, 2006 2:14 AM
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In a standoff over local control, state officials have warned the county that a new architectural board, based in Solvang and appointed by Supervisor Brooks Firestone to review plans for the Gaviota coast, has not received necessary approval from California's Coastal Commission.
The board has already met once this month and is scheduled to meet again on Friday. On the agenda is a proposal for the Simon Ranch -- a long, narrow strip of land along the north side of Highway 101, west of the Tajiguas landfill on the Gaviota coast. The owners want to build a home and guest house totalling 4,800 square feet, hiding them from view with landscaping.
It is unclear what actions the commission might take against the county. State officials won't try to stop the meeting, said Gary Timm, a district manager for the commission in Ventura, but, he said, they are awaiting the county's response to their concerns.
"It's a process question," Mr. Timm said. "They've made changes to how the board of architectural review operates in the coastal zone. What we are saying is that none of those changes should take effect until the commission has approved them.
"The commission is not going to seek any authority to have a say in who is appointed to the board," he added. "That's not our concern and never was and won't be in the future."
On Monday, Mr. Firestone said the commission had no right to intervene in the formation of the new board. The Hollister Ranch owners and others with property on the Gaviota coast had requested the change, Mr. Firestone said.
"They felt more affinity with the valley," he said. "They identify with the country preservation rather than the urban preservation. I represented my constituents. That's what I'm here for. I don't like a state agency telling us how to run our county."
County lawyers noted that the Coastal Commission did not seek to intervene in 2003 when a separate board of architectural review was created in Montecito.
"The reconfiguration of the county board of architectural review is a function separate and distinct from implementing coastal resource protection policies," said Deputy County Counsel Alan Seltzer. "It is not subject to the commission's certification."
Friday's meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at 1745 Mission Drive in Solvang. Four of the board members appointed by Mr. Firestone, including one of his aides, Kris Miller Fisher of Santa Barbara, are either architects or landscape architects who previously served on the Santa Barbara-based board.
"It's the same board," Ms. Miller Fisher said. "If anything, the situation is easier for people in the valley. They can talk to their neighbors and meet in the valley. It's a very comfortable situation."
Last November, the conservative majority on the county Board of Supervisors, including Mr. Firestone, representing the 3rd District, broke up the county's main board of architectural review, creating two new regional boards, one based in Solvang and one in Santa Maria.
At the same time, the supervisors reduced the jurisdiction of the Santa Barbara-based architectural review board to the urban South Coast. Previously, it had overseen most of the county, including the Gaviota coast. The one exception was Montecito.
In the past, the county's boards of architectural review have played an influential role in real estate development, weighing in on whether a project meets aesthetic standards and blends in with the size and style of neighboring buildings.
The Santa Barbara-based board, for example, recently objected to a landowner's plans for a 9,300-square-foot home on Farren Road near the Rancho del Embarcadero subdivision on the Gaviota coast, saying that it would intrude into the skyline in violation of county rules. The house was proposed to be more than 300 feet long, with an expanse of glass windows, and the board objected to these features as well. Members stated that the Gaviota coast was at a crossroads, and that projects there must be closely scrutinized. This house, they said, would be "incompatible with the natural environment."
So when Mr. Firestone and Supervisors Joe Centeno and Joni Gray moved the oversight of plans on the Gaviota coast to the newly created Solvang board, the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, a nonprofit group, cried foul and alerted the Coastal Commission.
"Our concern has been whether the pressure for developing trophy mansions on the Gaviota coast is going to be controlled," said Colleen Beall, a conservancy director.
"We really feel that the Board of Supervisors majority rushed through the changes so they could get the new boards of architectural review in place for the first of the year. We feel that they cut corners on getting the Coastal Commission's approval."
Mike Lunsford, the conservancy president, wonders why it was necessary to create a new board if, as Mr. Firestone contends, it is going to be just as protective as the old one.
"We're not so concerned about the people who were appointed," he said. "They look reputable and professional. But what real benefit is there?"
The conservancy, which seeks to save the Gaviota coast from urbanization, has not always agreed with the Santa Barbara-based board. In 2003, that board signed off on a two-story, 10,370-square-foot home at Rancho Tajiguas, halfway between the landfill and Refugio State Beach. The county Planning and Development staff issued a permit for the project, and the conservancy is appealing the decision to the county Board of Supervisors, even as it negotiates with the landowners to reach a compromise.
Mr. Firestone insists there is no need to worry because no more than 200 new homes could ever be built on the Gaviota coast, based on the existing zoning restrictions. As for size, a large, well-hidden home poses less of a concern than a small one in full public view, Mr. Firestone said.
"This discussion that the 3rd District, namely me, has some idea about developing the coast is just nonsense," he said. "It's pure politics."