Signs of Progress Evident as Goleta Reflects on State of the City
Six-year-old city still faces challenges, but leaders outline many improvements.
A who’s who of Goleta luminaries and South Coast business executives packed the Holiday Inn conference center where the first Goleta State of the City was held Thursday, an event organized with the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Government officials, UCSB leaders and business and community faces were in the crowd to hear comments on the status of Santa Barbara County’s newest city.
Goleta incorporated in February 2002, making it California’s 476th city.
For the past six years, Goleta, in its efforts to build itself from the ground up, has worked on adapting the rules and laws taken from its county days into a municipal code made for its own residents. Along the way, the city has and continues to face challenges with such issues as its budget, its General Plan, housing, redevelopment of Old Town and community programs.
“Unfortunately, Goleta wasn’t built to support the way it is today,” said Steve Wagner, head of Goleta’s public works department. The streets that originally were laid out to support a ranching and farming community have to be constantly maintained, repaired, built and rebuilt to provide for Goleta’s growing urban environment, he said.
Maintenance of city roads is an ongoing expense of $2 million to $3 million each fiscal year. Projects include flood control in Old Town, located at the upper end of the Goleta Slough, traffic improvement projects and two overcrossings that will connect Goleta’s south side to its north side, now separated by Highway 101.
Vyto Adomaitis, Goleta’s director of redevelopment, neighborhood services and public safety, gave an update on the status of Goleta’s neighborhoods.
“I am proud to say Goleta tows more vehicles than all of the cities in the county combined,” he said, prompting chuckles from the crowd. “Just make sure yours isn’t one of them.”
On the more serious side, Adomaitis talked about the improved storefronts and homes in Old Town, a neighborhood with a history of periodic flooding, and plans to fund programs for youths.
Online visitors to the city can expect an improved city Web site later this year, Administrative Services Director Michelle Greene said. It’s a far cry from the beginnings of the city.
“Six years ago, City Hall was in the trunk of the first city manager’s car,” she said. These days, her department is working on improving career opportunities for city employees and benefits such as alternative transportation programs and a more formal internship program.
Steve Chase, Goleta’s planning and environmental services director, gave a rundown of the newly finished and upcoming projects taking place within the city, including hotels, business and commercial spaces, Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital’s renovation construction and large-scale residential projects. But, he said, the small-scale home improvements are also what the planning department likes to “wrap its arms around.”
Mayor Michael Bennett wrapped up the meeting with a discussion on Goleta’s revenue neutrality agreement, a tax-sharing pact that sends up to half of the city’s tax revenues to the county. Finance Director Tina Rivera says the city has a stable financial outlook, despite the county’s budget woes.
However, if the city had a bigger share of the revenue it made, Bennett said, Goleta would more quickly have a recreation program, a foot patrol, even a light rail system.
“We will never be able to provide the amount of housing that people who commute to Goleta will need,” he said. But a viable transit option would make things easier for those who have to travel the distance.
UCSB’s long-range development plan is a “double-edged sword,” said Bennett, who noted UCSB’s role as an economic and cultural force in the community, but also the local effects the increased development would bring.
In the near future, Bennett said, water issues need to be sorted out, as well as a potential transfer of development rights program for parcels on the Gaviota coast.
Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at .
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