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Santa Barbara County Officials Test the Waters of ‘Goleta Beach 2.0’
Six months after the California Coastal Commission denied a proposal for permeable pilings to retain sand on erosion-prone Goleta Beach, Santa Barbara County officials presented another set of measures Tuesday evening.
“Goleta Beach 2.0” is an attempt to save the most vital parts of the popular park, with a reconfiguration of its utilities and amenities. In so doing, county officials hope to retain the valuable destination without having to fight the constant erosion with less environmentally friendly hard structures or constantly replenishing the beach with sand.
“We’re obviously trying to balance different issues and concerns and trying to come up with a plan we can all live with and what the Coastal Commission will approve,” said Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr, who hosted Tuesday’s informational public meeting.
Plans include the relocation of 170 parking spaces on the park’s western end, a prime erosion zone, thus allowing the ocean to take its natural course in that area with the idea that the erosion will hit an equilibrium point and stop eating into the beach. Satellite parking would be created north of the park, and visitors would access the beach via trail, shuttle bus or a future water taxi.
Another measure includes relocating utility lines — wastewater, gas and reclaimed water — that run close to the shore, farther inland. A popular bike trail also would be relocated.
“These actions represent a deliberate measured response to the erosion conditions that we confront at Goleta Beach today,” County Parks Deputy Director Erik Axelson said.
Other plans include a planned landing for kayaks, interpretive exhibits of the slough and the beach, an interpretive path, a new vehicular access bridge to replace the existing one — possibly turning the current one into a bike/pedestrian bridge.
The Goleta Beach 2.0 concept includes removing existing unpermitted rock revetments, but also the extension of a central area rock revetment to protect an underground vault owned by the Goleta Sanitary District, as well as another revetment to protect the relocated underground utilities.
New recreational programs are being considered, including a kayak concession, storage of small watercraft, expansion of pier fishing activities and boat excursions from Goleta Pier.
The measures presented Tuesday evening amount to a compromise of sorts among solutions proposed to save the beach and its amenities, but were deemed to be either not environmentally sensitive, such as permanent hard structures to hold off the waves; or costly, such as the constant sand replenishment that eventually ends up being washed downcurrent and dredged up in the Santa Barbara Harbor; or a threat to the use of the beach, such as a managed retreat that had people fearing for the grassy park area or the restaurant.
The variable approaches and their downsides have been a point of contention for many who have participated in work sessions for the past eight years.
“We’re looking for something that protects the park, protects the environment and can get approved by the Coastal Commission,” Environmental Defense Center analyst Brian Trautwein said.
For years a rift has developed between the environmental community, which has proposed a managed retreat solution, and those who sought to preserve the park and its amenities, despite potential impacts to the environment.
Most of the public speakers on Tuesday were generally supportive of the concept.
“At first glance, Goleta Beach 2.0 is fantastic,” Goleta Valley resident Ken Palley said.
His sentiments were shared by several like-minded speakers from environmental groups such as the Environmental Defense Center and the Surfrider Foundation. Several of those speakers pushed for the utilities to be relocated even farther inland, which would negate the need for structures to protect utility lines.
There were a couple of people, though, who were uneasy about the removal of the unpermitted rock revetment, citing concerns with erosion and loss of park.
“Unless you protect (the park), you’re wasting your time and our money,” said Glen Davis, adding that relocation of the parking lot would be “ludicrous.”
Funding the project most likely would entail the establishment of parking fees, which also was a concern for those who want the park to remain accessible to low-income residents. At this conceptual stage, the actual amount of money would be difficult to determine.
“My gut feeling is that this project could well be less costly than what the county proposed last year for the permeable piles,” Axelson said.
Goleta Beach Park is the county’s most popular park, with 1.5 million visitors every year. It also has been subject to intense erosion, particularly in El Nino years, when winter storms kick up enough wave and rain action to seriously thin out the sandy area.
In response, the county has had to obtain emergency permits to erect a rock wall to help the beach weather the storms. Meanwhile, the constant erosion has led to a money drain for efforts to replenish the beach’s sand.
The last proposal to make it to the Coastal Commission was the establishment of a permeable groin — a structure of pilings erected as an extension of Goleta Pier to trap and retain sand in the area. It was criticized by local environmental groups, such as the Surfrider Foundation, because it would have interrupted the flow of sand to beaches farther downcurrent, such as Hendry’s, More Mesa and Hope Ranch. The proposal was voted down 9-1 last July by the California Coastal Commission.
Tuesday’s meeting was designed to take input from stakeholders and the public. In March, hearings will be held before the Park Commission and the Planning Commission. Then County Parks will go before the Board of Supervisors in April with the beginnings of a new project, with engineering and environmental reviews expected in May.
Click here to view an interactive map of the area.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 02.17.10 @ 08:06 AM
If pier fishing activities are extended, then added also should be additional attention to seabird protection. There should be signage—- and patrols. The volunteer who is there now is helpful, but is just that, a volunteer - and he’s not on duty all the time.
Thought should be given to requiring barbless hooks for all fishing done off the pier. (And of course it should be enforced.)
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» on 02.17.10 @ 09:29 AM
Talk about amusing irrational discussions this one takes the cake. This meeting was a joke wasn’t it? Supervisor Wolf had around her, her hard core environmental troops, and the general public was (as usual) a no show because (a) the Olympics are on, and (b) daily life goes on.
Read the article, and note this is “managed retreat” (the next item to be lost will be the airport). At the same time the pro erosion groups want to create a destination center? Remember philosophy 101? An argument that is soundly logical but irrational cannot stand. There is the issue of your tax dollars spent on relocation of utilities, parking, roads, bridges and what ever more they can think of - it is only your money.
A great alternative solving 90% of the issue of wave erosion against rocks is the Japanese “jacks” system. Star shaped concrete protecting the existing rock wall, is economical, is proven to work, and BEST OF ALL KEEPS PARKING (et al) in place allowing the Goleta community to continue to enjoy their only seashore park.
Then again it is fiscally responsible, and public friendly alternatives the environmentalist anti-everything groups do not want. What’s new!!! (notice it wasn’t a question)
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» on 02.17.10 @ 10:44 AM
Doesn’t anybody remember the Goleta ‘beach’ from fifty years ago? Look at it - its a leftover sandspit from the Goleta slough. That slough has been cut off from the ocean and the creek flow redirected. Is anyone talking about taking the road into UCSB away and letting the slough and creek flow out onto the existing beaches? The parking lot next to UCSB serves only one purpose - parking for UCSB. Too much man made development on this sandspit. Goleta beach was never a place for so many visitors - most of whom are coming in by the busloads from out of town.
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» on 02.17.10 @ 03:31 PM
re: seabird protection
Part of the mission of the Goleta Pier Angler Center is angler impact mitigation. In that regard additional signage regarding ways to avoid impacting seabird have been posted both at the foot of the Pier and in a number of locations on the Pier itself for the past several years.
The Angler Center hands out free pamphlets advising the safe manner in unhooking seabirds and provides rescue service for both seabirds and sea mammals needing attention from the local Wildlife Care Network and the Marine Mammal Center. Contact numbers for these emergencies are posted on the outside wall of the Angler Center for those times when I am not on the Pier.
In addition there are posters at the Angler Center demonstrating how a 6 hook Sabiki (jig) rig can be modified to limit the number of hooks thus reducing injuries to entangled birds which we advise and assist in retrieving thru nets rather than by hook and line.
The Center has also installed fish line recycling baskets which help to collect leftover line and hooks from the Pier. The underside of the Pier and the adjacent rock reef are cleaned of dangling hooks and line at least once a year by a local dive club.
Pamphlets promoting the use of circle hooks are also available along with free samples when I can afford it. Circle hooks are designed to set in a fish’s lip (over 90% of the time) rather than in its throat or stomach thus helping to insure a healthier catch and release. We also promote the use of shortened leaders (under 6”) to prevent gut-hooking.
The Pier is cleaned of all leftover hooks, line, bait, litter and kelp 7 days a week by 7am and has been for the past 4.5 years.
In addition I’ve been serving as a resident Park Host since the opening of the Center in September 2008. My duties include cleaning the restrooms at the foot of the Pier and removing litter and fishing debris from adjacent parking lots. As a resident host I am available 24/7 to assist in any pier-related needs.
The Angler Center also sponsors angler education classes and assists such local groups as the Boys and Girls Club and the Alpha School in their outings to the Pier. Loaner rods and tackle are available by advanced reservation for these outings as well.
The Center itself is open Thursdays - Sundays and most holidays from 11am to 4pm.
I can honestly say that the above efforts have resulted in a noticible reduction in seabird entanglements and injuries. I would like to thank the many anglers who have accepted their responsibility for protection of marine wildlife at the Pier. It has been my pleasure to work with this great group of people.
Boyd Grant, Pier Host
Goleta Pier Angler Center/United Pier and Shore Anglers of California (http://www.upsac.org)
805 637-6708
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» on 02.17.10 @ 09:23 PM
So Frequent user you state Supervisor Wolf had her “hard core environmental troops” “around her” at the meeting. Sadly, she was unable to be at the meeting as her mother just died. So your credibility is…welll…....not there.
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» on 02.18.10 @ 12:42 AM
Let’s restore the slough to what it was before we foolishly destroyed a very rare inland harbor on the west coast. As few as a couple hundred years ago, it was a large harbor with an island, according to Wikipedia;
The estuary mouth fluctuated along the beach while 40,000 years of coastal uplift raised the mesa to the east and west. Since the late 1800s, Santa Barbara residents have been modifying the Goleta Beach area. Cattle grazing in the watershed begun in 1846 and fires caused hillsides to erode and fill parts of the Goleta Slough with sediment. In the early 1900s, local landowners invited citizens to bring fill to the beach on which a state beach park was established. Meanwhile, in 1943 the federal government continued the filling of the estuary when it bulldozed the historic Mescaltitlan Island just inside the estuary to create an airbase for use during World War II (SBCPD, 2003). In the 1960s, further construction continued on the wetlands including a sewage treatment facility and California Highway 217, and the state park was turned over to Santa Barbara County.
For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goleta_Beach
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