"Noleta" residents gear up
to defeat housing proposal

Goleta Valley residents fighting an ambitious plan for new and affordable housing urged friends and neighbors on Tuesday to join their cause.

The move against a Santa Barbara County proposal adds sizzle to a long-simmering feud between home owners fearful of overcrowding, more traffic and the future of their own home values, and planners charged with preparing the region for construction.

More than 100 people packed a room at the Goleta Public Library, where leaders of the Hollister Avenue Neighborhood Association and the affiliated Coalition for Sensible Planning argued that a proposal to rezone properties across the unincorporated area of, "Noleta" to introduce condos, multistory apartments or increase the number of units per acre - is moving forward largely behind. closed doors without sufficient public input

"You've got to figure out a way to get organized," Barry Cappello, a lawyer representing, the two groups, told the crowd. "The target is here."

The meeting came roughly 24 hours after a neighborhood advisory council convened by 2nd District Supervisor Susan Rose recommended against using some of the last remaining 109 acres of Goleta Valley farmland for new homes. Officials are compiling the panel's suggestions, which included input from HANA and other critics and focused on 19 properties, including the Magnolia Shopping Center and San Marcos Growers on Hollister Avenue.

Officials point to the 40-person council as an example of recent efforts to reach out to residents.

They really moved from, "We don't want to have the conversation" to "These are sites that we could live with," Lisa Plowman, deputy director of comprehensive planning at the county Planning and Development Department; said of the panel.

But those critical of the county say the outreach by Ms. Rose was hardly enough. They noted that she has said, one way or another, that affordable homes are on the way More than 38,000 people live in unincorporated Goleta.

"If you live in some neighborhood where there is no association, there was nobody there for you," said Gary Earle, president of HANA and the Coalition for Sensible Planning. "Susan Rose told us over and over again she was the ultimate decision-maker."

On vacation in Russia, Ms. Rose could not be reached. Her executive assistant; Alissa Hummer, said the advisory council was an attempt to inject into the debate "a calm, more rational look at the housing sites."

That desire may come as no surprise to all parties involved. Because rezoning is driven by a state mandate, the fight over new homes has raged for more than a year and at times turned quite bitter.

Although recent neighborhood council recommendations do signal some level of progress between the county and its critics, concerned residents note the suggestions are nonbinding

The question of where firefighters, teachers and other middle-income professionals can find a home is troubling for policymakers in Santa Barbara County, where along the South Coast the median home price recently hit a record $1 million.

Work force housing needs are driving the rezoning proposal, officials say. In addition, the state requires that sites for 6,064 new housing units 3,499 at affordable prices - be found in the unincorporated county for construction through 2008. Another 11,468 - 7,021 at affordable levels - are slated for the eight cities in the county.

The unincorporated county has more than enough empty urban and rural land zoned residential to accommodate the required market rate units. But current zoning can not accommodate affordable housing in "low" or "very low" household income categories, in which the 2000 Census included workers who earn less than $48,500 a year for a family of four.

Officials say the unincorporated South Coast must prepare for 165 affordable units. With each likely to be built as part of market-rate projects, these could fuel the construction of an estimated 1,100 or more homes.

Ms. Plowman said Tuesday that any selected sites will be analyzed in a review by fall.

Hours later, Mr. Cappello indicated that his clients prefer an independent review that could take six to 10 months.