Letter to the Editor: Bishop Ranch Initiation Will Lead to Affordable, Needed Workforce Housing

By Dawn Eyman | Published on 09.18.2011

I am a single mom renting a condo in the Goleta Union School District. I have been a PTA member for eight years, ever since my first child started kindergarten. I am also a past PTA president and a past PTA treasurer, and have served in many other volunteer capacities at our school to raise the necessary funds to keep our educational specialists.

Also, I have served as a District Advisory Council member for our school, and was a member of the Goleta Union School District Strategic Task Force for several years, working directly with the school board and the district to ensure proper curriculum development. All of this is to say that I am very involved in our community, and I care deeply about the welfare of our children and future opportunities that we make available to them as they grow into adulthood.

I have been studying the issue of Bishop Ranch including the request that the Goleta City Council initiate an amendment to the city’s General Plan to change the zoning designation from agriculture, which according to the city’s own study isn’t a viable use for the property, to urban. This would allow the owner of the property to build much-needed workforce housing that would also generate substantial sums of money for our local school district. This seems like a win-win to me. It seems to me this property offers great potential for people like me who need more housing opportunities that are affordable.

I hope the Goleta City Council will vote to initiate Tuesday night and allow the property owner to create a master-planned community on a portion of this site for local families to live and raise their children.

Dawn Eyman
Goleta

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» Goleta Resident on 09.18.11 @ 06:59 PM

You must believe in FAIRIES if you truly believe that this project will create “affordable workforce housing”. Here is a quote from Yahoo finance about Larwin Homes “Larwin Company doesn’t build castles made of sand, but it does build some pricey single-family homes in Southern California.” The median price for these homes is projected to be $600,000.00+. There are many homes currently for sale in Goleta for less than that. Goleta has all of the required projected housing sites, “affordable” and market rate set aside in accordance with California requirements to meet future needs, without changing the General Plan.

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» BobC on 09.20.11 @ 10:58 AM

Dawn,
Teachers are the best! And I support your affordable housing goals. But, here’s a word to the wise - don’t believe everything a developer tells you. If you research LA Times articles about Michael Keston’s (LA based Bishop Ranch Developer) developments in LA, you will see articles stating he did not fund schools as per city requirements. Further, developments do not create a positive cash flow for cities or schools. And, I do not know if there are guarantees of affordable housing for Bishop Ranch - that is not how developers make their money. Please consider supporting an option that would benefit the people of Goleta - not an LA Developer.
Thanks
BC

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