Rasta and Transparentsea are sailing down the coast. First stop, Gaviota coast.

The Transparentsea crew have started their one month odyssey. They are sailing from north of Santa Barbara and heading to Baja, Mexico. They are sailing to highlight coastal issues and the plight of marine mammals. One of their first stops is the gorgeous Gaviota Coast.

During their stop in Santa Barbara they met with our local activist maven Sandy Lejeune.

Here Rasta and Sandy connect holding up the campaign T (pick one up on Swell).

You can engage in this campaign, sign the petition here Save Gaviota.

Photo: Dawe/TransparentSea

If that's not enough the crew, including Angus Stone, wrote and recorded a song about the 20 miles of Gaviota coast. Check that out here.

2nd Annual Preserve Gaviota Holiday Party

Surfrider Foundation's Santa Barbara Chapter

invites you to join them for their
2nd Annual Holiday Fundraiser

Friday, December 3, 2010 - 8pm - late!
SOhO Restaurant and Music Club

Silent auction featuring 11 custom painted miniature surfboards from Kim Hamrock, Matt Moore, Sean Kirkpatrick, Nathan Paul Gibbs, the Anderson Art Collective (Ron, Ben and Sean!), Wyatt Perkins, and more! Unique artwork by Ned Evans and local Santa Barbara artisans. There will be great surfing gifts, wine, and unique gifts to choose from!

Live music by The Tridents, a four piece instrumental rock and surf band who began playing together in 1960. In surf music parlance, they are bona fide “first wavers,” who began playing the rock instrumental classics that preceded surf music and were later covered by every first generation surf band in southern California.

Funds raised will support the Chapter's 10+ year effort to Preserve the Gaviota Coastline. Please sign the petition and pass it on, thanks!

View the Event webpage for event details and images of all the silent auction items!

SEE YOU THERE!

NAPLES ACTION ALERT! Come show your support for saving Naples!!

On Tuesday, June 23 the Board of Supervisors is holding a hearing to consider the County's next steps concerning the processing of the Naples project. The Naples Coalition and Surfrider Foundation have reviewed the Staff Report and developed a letter describing the specific steps we are asking the Board to take. Supporters are asked to attend. Given the complex technical issues involved, non-speaking support at the hearing is sufficient. Public comment should be limited to expressions of support for saving Naples and endorsement of the testimony of the Naples Coalition and Surfrider Foundation representatives.

If you want to check the hearing's agenda items, go to www.countyofsb.org and, in the right column, click on Board of Supervisors "Agenda and Minutes". Any changes of date will be listed here.

Supporters can also email members of the Board of Supervisors and ask them to make decisions at this hearing that will help SAVE NAPLES.

So that you can cut and paste email addresses, Board of Supervisors Salud Carbajal, Janet Wolf, Doreen Farr, Joni Gray and Joseph Centeno are listed below:
SupervisorCarbajal@sbcbos1.org, jwolfe@sbcbos2.org, dfarr@countyofsb.org, jgray@co.santa-barbara.ca.us, jcenteno@co.santa-barbara.ca.us

Judge Invalidates Water District Annexation of Gaviota Coast Lots

PRESS RELEASE

From: Santa Barbara Chapter Surfrider Foundation
Date: April 14, 2009
Press contact:  Ken Palley (805) 967-9938 and Ellison Folk, legal counsel, (415) 269-6699, Santa Barbara Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation 
Mike Lunsford (805) 967-5828 and Marc Chytilo, legal counsel, (805) 682-0585, Gaviota Coast Conservancy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Judge Invalidates Water District Annexation of Gaviota 

Coast Lots

http://www.surfrider.org/santabarbara/PagesMain/makar3.html

A lawsuit filed by the Gaviota Coast Conservancy and Surfrider Foundation resulted today in a decision invalidating a 2008 action by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) annexing prime Gaviota Coast parcels into the Goleta Water District.  Without water service, development of the lots 

is more challenging. 

“This is a second significant ruling in two weeks for the Gaviota Coast” explained Gaviota Coast Conservancy President Mike Lunsford.  “The laws and policies protecting the Gaviota Coast, mean very little if they are not followed by local decision makers.  This decision restores reason and fair play in the permitting process, and puts Orange County developers on notice that this community will not stand by and allow them to play fast and loose with the Gaviota Coast.”

Ms. Ellison Folk, lead attorney for the legal team, stated “This decision required analysis of a complex legal and factual setting, but reached the core issues regarding whether the developer, GWD and LAFCO could rely on the incomplete 1998 annexation for a golf course to provide water service for a completely different residential project ten years later.  The Court recognized that the new residential project needed a new application for annexation and could not rely on the ten year old incomplete golf course project.” 

Attorney Marc Chytilo explained: “This case has a long and convoluted history.”  The two environmental groups first challenged an attempt by the Goleta Water District to annex the parcels in 2007, since the District didn’t comply with CEQA by preparing an EIR.  To avoid a losing lawsuit, GWD withdrew that project, then arranged to reactivate the 1998 golf course annexation, bypassing CEQA.  But the 1998 annexation had never been finalized, as all parties had agreed at that time to merge 25 Naples antiquated lots as a required element of the project, but the merger never happened.  The golf course project received full approval from the County and Coastal Commission, but then was stopped when red-legged frogs were discovered on the site.  The developer sued the Coastal Commission, who entered into a tolling agreement that contemplated 10 houses on the 25 Naples lots, in addition to two other large agricultural lots with mansions.  Only one of these lots had water service, so the developer had to apply to the GWD to annex the rest of the lots to get water service. 

In 1998 the planned water service was to be almost exclusively reclaimed water for the golf course, and the developer paid GWD $4.5 million for the District to expand its reclaimed water facilities.  When the golf course was stopped, the developer shifted and pursued the residential project that requires all potable water.  The developer demanded that the GWD help them with the annexation, or else would demand return of the $4.5 million, even though the money had been spent for infrastructure to deliver reclaimed water for the golf course.  In 2008, GWD convinced LAFCO to use the 1998 incomplete annexation as a means to get water for residential development. 

Chytilo continued: “Surfrider and the Gaviota Coast Conservancy fought these efforts through a series of lawsuits, and today prevailed.  The judge ruled that there had been no annexation, and a new application would have to be filed for Makar’s residential development.”  Makar has a development application pending before Santa Barbara County to develop two massive, luxury residential compounds.  They also own 25 antiquated “Naples” lots totaling 57 acres that are zoned agricultural.  These lots are similar to the lots owned by another Orange County developer, Matt Osgood and known as Santa Barbara Ranch.  But now they have no water and face growing community hostility to oversized mansions on the Gaviota Coast’s prime agricultural lands.  With new board members on the Goleta Water District Board of Directors, at LAFCO and at the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, the Makar residential project faces an uncertain future.   

About The Surfrider Foundation:

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education.  The Santa Barbara Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has been deeply involved in efforts to preserve the Gaviota coast for more than ten years.  The Chapter fought the “ARCO Golf Course” project successfully before turning to save that very same property from residential development at the hand of the Orange County-based Makar properties.  For more information see:  www.sbsurfrider.org <http://www.sbsurfrider.org> . 

About The Gaviota Coast Conservancy:

The Gaviota Coast Conservancy is a private, non-profit organization that promotes the permanent protection of the Gaviota Coast's unique natural, scenic, agricultural, recreational, and cultural resources.  GCC monitors all significant development on the Gaviota Coast, acting as a watchdog, reviewing EIRs, submitting comments, and filing appeals where necessary.  Working through partnerships with other land conservation organizations, local landowners, resource agencies, and government entities, the Conservancy is promoting long-term strategies to protect the Gaviota Coast from the rapid urban expansion that threatens this region.  For more information, visit www.gaviotacoastconservancy.org <http://www.gaviotacoastconservancy.org> . 

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