Article taken from the Santa Barbara News Press

From Capitol to local shores

How the state budget affects Santa Barbara County

6/18/99
By NORA K. WALLACE
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

With the passage Wednesday of the $81.7 billion state budget, the Gaviota coastline is one step closer to preservation, and both Old Town Goleta and Guadalupe could be getting new parks.

Included in the voluminous budget package, which is now on the desk of Gov. Gray Davis, were approximately$14 million in requests sought by the Central Coast's three legislators-state Sen. Jack O'Connell, D-San Luis Obispo, Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, and Assemblyman Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria.

Each of the lawmakers plans to lobby Davis to keep the local projects from being cut. Here are the summaries of those projects now in the budget:

Gaviota Coast Preservation

Bob Keats calls the Gaviota coastline, "the last place." The sweeping region, from Goleta's Coal Oil Point to Point Sal east of Santa Maria, is the last sizeable stretch of relatively undeveloped coastal land in Southern California, and Keats, president of the nonprofit Gaviota Coast Conservancy project, wants to keep it that way.

A $5 million budget request from O'Connell and Jackson may help.

Corey Brown, attorney for the Trust for Public Land, a group involved in preservation efforts, said the funding "will generate momentum to help protect this special part of the coast."

The money would help officials begin buying "priority properties" that are for sale, Brown said.

"It's a voluntary program," he said. "If landowners would like to sell, they can. If they don't want to, there's no requirement that they do sell. Willing land owners who'd like to participate get compensated and resources are protected."