When I was a Montecito teenager in the 1970s, I would walk from my home on Loureyro Road to North Jameson Creek, across from Fernald Point. He would walk to the stream, under the road, and come out on the other side walking on the railroad track. I followed paths until I saw the ocean and then went down the dirt road to the beach. That’s how my neighbor’s children went to the beach.
If an exercise was performed on the tracks when I left the creek, I would simply hold on to the wire fence next to the beach houses until the exercise was over. This indestructible teenager didn’t care that the exercise was just rushed. a meter away from him. What can go wrong? I’m almost on my own personal beach in Montecito.
As a Santa Barbara high school madrigal and aspiring jazz singer, it’s the position where I can just sing my scales and practice my music in person, there’s no one around. I could just swim in the water and sing as loud as I wanted, and no one would bother me.
This road to the beach was closed 50 years ago. If access to the beach had been a little harder to cross (like chain-link fences in the most sensitive creek), I wouldn’t have bothered to do so.
On July 11, 2007, at a meeting of the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission, immediate neighbors of the key site of Orcutt 11 told planning commissioners, such as Michael Cooney, that they were afraid of the proposed progression of 33 mixed-use sets at Key Site 11, because they had noticed that young people were being hit by motorists at the intersection of Clark Ave/Orcutt Road. They had also noticed other people involved in injuries at this location.
While stopped at a red light in front of Jack in the Box, I sat in my car while another car drove at a red light. There are three red lights dangerously stacked at this intersection, pressed together, and I witnessed a red light. -in a collision where one car bounced off the other and back at me while I was waiting for my light to turn green. The car involved in the twist of fate almost wiped me out: Father Tree Friends.
He had witnessed another twist of fate while sitting at the same red light, when another car ran through a red light and crashed into a giant SUV. The girl in the truck, shaking, confused, but okay, got out of her car in the middle of the intersection with traffic speeding by. I had to stop in front of Key Site 11 on Clark Avenue, take her arm and lead her to the sidewalk. I waited for the government to arrive. Neighbors tried to warn planning commissioners at the time about the danger of this intersection, but the 2007 plan moved forward. In the end, and fortunately, the transfer was avoided through Fish and Game.
Today, the Santa Barbara Planning Commission, just thirteen days after the developer submitted the plan and with no opportunity for public input on the plan, approved the rezoning of a progression at Key Site 11 that has 150 apartments and is five times larger than proposed. 33 units. Progression in 2007. (The developer, represented through Jacob Weintraub of TVJ Sons, owners of Santa Maria Toyota, Honda and Kia, is Orcutt Ranch Clark Avenue LLC, which includes Pat Cusack. )
The county attempted to eliminate the effects of traffic on the LOS (Level of Service) for this allocation as a component of the affordable housing element, but the true heroes of the city of Goleta (Mayor Pro Tem Luz Reyes-MartinArray, Councilman Stuart Kasdin and Councilman James Kyriaco) spoke. bravely at the County Housing Element meeting about Goleta’s desire to preserve the LOS and the fact that the County, not the State, was proposing to eliminate the LOS from the Housing Element. Goleta won her case. Therefore, Goleta, and by default Orcutt Key site 11, were still affected by LOS traffic. Therefore, the developer of Key Site 11 (TVJ Sons) would have to prove that this new development, in terms of traffic, was safe.
It should be noted that TVJ Sons has requested that the City of Santa Maria waive failed LOS grades of “F” for its RV garage on Preisker Avenue in Santa Maria in 2023, so we do not expect TVJ Sons, or County Planning Commissioners not to be deterred by DS titles showing that this new progression of 150 affordable homes cannot be built.
Supervisors Lavagnino and Nelson have already expressed enthusiasm for this allocation, even before the vote to include it in the housing sector. Supervisor Nelson even proudly displayed his giant re-election sign at Key Site 11 just weeks before the housing article vote and told Supervisor Hartmann at that meeting that the town of Santa Maria had given him water for this allocation . In 2007, Tree Friends of Orcutt demonstrated that the 33-unit mixed-use progression proposed at the time at Key Site 11 exceeded the effects of traffic. This fact did not seem to matter to the Santa Barbara Planning Commission or supervisors before voting in favor of this rezoning assignment in the housing component. After all, traffic effects on LOS were intended to be eliminated as part of the home detailing, so why would they care?
Like the inaction at Fernald Point all those years and the death of a Santa Barbara high school student, commissioners, supervisors, and plan developers turn a blind eye to apparent protective issues that can be unnecessarily and easily avoided. No single child at Orcutt Academy, Delta High School, or Orcutt Junior High School deserves to be a victim of the county’s child protection. These students meet at the intersection of Key Site 11 after school. The Orcutt Tree Amigos inspire all citizens of Santa Barbara County. email the five county supervisors and planning commissioners to tell them that you don’t need Supervisor Nelson and the developer (TVJ Sons) to build this progression on Key Site 11 and request, once and for all, a permanent open area easement on the Orcutt Key 11 Site.
Correction: The editing of this story incorrectly named Jacob Weintraub, Mike McNulty, and Mike Bouquet as developers of this project.
Please note that this connection is used for occasions or press releases. Use this page here to log in to your standalone subscription
Not a member? Register here.
FOLLOW US ON
SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER