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Mesa Residents Hear Pros and Cons of Measure Y
By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @laraanncooper | 
| Published on 05.29.2012 11:23 p.m.
“Access” was a word that popped up dozens of times at a town-hall style meeting Tuesday night, and is at the heart of Measure Y, which will be going before voters in the City of Santa Barbara on June 5.
That access centers on a bridge that would span a strip of city-owned property — designated as park land — surrounding the banks of Arroyo Burro Creek. The bridge would connect Las Positas Road to 25 homes planned by Mark Lee as part of his Veronica Meadows development.
The project already has been approved by city leaders, but voters must give their OK for the bridge, or the main entrance of the development will have to be routed via Alan Road, a route opposed by residents of the area.
About 50 people gathered at Holy Cross Church parish hall Tuesday night to hear both sides vigorously making their cases. The event was coordinated by Our Mesa Neighborhood.
Lee and Alan Road resident Andy Seybold spoke on behalf of Measure Y, while City Councilwoman Cathy Murillo and land-use attorney Marc Chytilo represented the opponents.
Lee, who has spent 12 years in the development process, reminded the public of the tedious review the project has been subject to. He and Seybold noted that after extensive review, the project already has been approved, and the vote on the bridge is the last hurdle.
Throughout the night, Lee painted a picture of the creek corridor that he said was desperately in need of improvement. After buying a pair of waders, Lee said, he recently trekked through the creek bed, which wasn’t a pristine sight.
“The only sign of humans being in that corridor were bits of toilet paper,” he said.
Noting that the city is strapped for cash, Lee said there will never be enough revenue for all of the city’s improvement projects.
“This is a boon to the city and the community,” he said.
Seybold also spoke in favor of the measure, saying that parking and traffic already are difficult in his neighborhood, and would become more so if Measure Y fails.
“I’m asking you to vote yes to save our neighborhood,” he said.
But others worried that the move would set a dangerous precedent for development on the South Coast. Chytilo raised the prospect of bucolic Parma Park, also rimmed with residential homes, and said that approving Measure Y could open up other areas around the city for development.
He also voiced concerns about piecemeal development of Arroyo Burro Creek’s restoration.
Murillo said that the bridge should not be on public park land, and would have significant negative impacts on the creek, as well as traffic on Las Positas. Murillo said she believed that creek restoration was possible through other funding means, such as Measure B.
If the measure fails, she said, Lee would have to come to seek a new review by the city Planning Commission, which narrowly approved it the first time. At that point, “the housing project goes back to square one,” she said. “We need a project that benefits all of the neighborhoods in Santa Barbara.”
Exactly how far back in the approval process the project would have to go was speculative, but Lee called into question Murillo’s claim.
“I suggest to you that the answers to these kinds of questions are convoluted, and to be taken with a grain of salt,” he told the audience.
But Murillo didn’t buy it.
“Our city attorney did not give a convoluted answer, I assure you,” she told Lee.
Past city officials who had weighed on the project also spoke. Former Mayor Marty Blum, who supports the measure, said that the council worked hard to review the project.
“It was a very thoughtful decision,” she said, adding that the creek would finally be cleaned up if it passed.
But Councilman Bendy White, who served on the Planning Commission when the project was approved, said that he felt it had been a mistake to zone the area to a higher density to allow for more housing.
During a question-and-answer time, one resident asked why Lee continues the project, even after all this time.
“I made a commitment to see it through,” he responded. “It’s not a gift from the city to me. It’s a project that stands on it’s own merit, and is doing more benefit to the city at large than I believe any in this region.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 03:16 AM
For the undecided , I suggest a trip down Las Positas at 5:30 p.m. any weekday. Seeing traffic often backed up to Portesuello with idling cars and frustrated commuters, the decision to vote no became very easy for me.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 07:11 AM
We are still paying off 8 pacel taxes, how fast we forget??
No new taxes..
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» on 05.30.12 @ 11:12 AM
Density is density no matter how its gift-wrapped. Higher density = more traffic, more crime, more pollution, more sewage, etc. I’m not a NIMBY, as I don’t even own a home. I just see SB turning into every other overdeveloped coastal gem… just look at La Jolla.
No, everyone and their brother is not ENTITLED to live in Santa Barbara. If you can swing it, great! But if not, let’s always keep it a beautiful place to come visit.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 12:09 PM
I’ll be voting “yes” because I spend a lot of time walking and running on Las Positas and it is dangerous. Even if the creek restoration and walkway won’t connect me all the way, just getting me off the side of the road for that small section is an improvement in my mind. Also, if you’ve ever taken the time to wonder down around the creek you know that it is in dire need of some restoration and the section we are talking about is one of the worst off. I don’t buy the “SB will become overdeveloped” argument either precisely because of the debate we’re having right now. It’s too hard to develop here and then even if a developer manages to get a project off the ground it’s too expensive for most to move here. Oh and the whole “high density = higher crime” thing - give me a break! These are going to be 7 figure homes not project housing. Actually in my opinion, they should connect over the bridge and through Alan road. Two access points would reduce the traffic burden overall and the Alan road route would connect Modoc to the beach for pedestrians who want to avoid the danger of Las Positas.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 12:42 PM
If you look on the right side of the map referenced by da face you’ll see that there’s already a path to the beach along the western edge of Elings Park. It avoids going through or adjacent to the Alan Road residences and arrives at an intersection that at least has stop signs.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 02:33 PM
The truth never changes,it changes things around it…
Bottom line?...SB does`nt care what we want or need…if there`s $ being offered,SB chooses it over us…period.
This “thing” will go through,but mark these words..when it does,SB is done & we`ll never be able to un-do it.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 05:40 PM
Like I said , hop in your car at 5:30 any weekday and drive Las Positas toward the beach. While you are sitting there stuck in traffic , motor idling for 10 minutes or more , ask yourself if you really want to pile 25 more homes full of commuters to further clog up that mess.
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» on 05.30.12 @ 07:52 PM
Not only will Las Positas Road get even more clogged with traffic commuters, but this luxury housing will generate traffic from the pizza deliveries, UPS drivers, guest cottage tenants, pool boys, massage therapists, tennis instructors, motivational coaches, and the like serving the affluents who would purchase those luxury houses.
And we locals know how to pronounce Las Positas, unlike the push-pollsters hired by Mr. Lee, who called up the locals and said POS-uh-tuss.
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» on 05.31.12 @ 12:40 AM
Some friends and I recently and went down into the creek. It’s not as bad as the campaign mailers say. Water is still flowing. No collapsed banks. Definitely overgrown in some parts though.
Even if some creek work is needed, we have Measure B funds to pay for creek restoration and water quality work. Measure B funds are recurring revenue for the City and come from bed taxes paid by tourists. In fiscal 2010, Measure B generated $2.29M for creek restoration (it cannot be spent on anything else). And the kitty gets refilled every year!
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Resident/Community/Creeks/Creeks_Overview.htm
And the good news is bed taxes have been going up so we’ll have even more money to pay for creek restoration.
http://stage.independent.com/news/2012/apr/20/santa-barbaras-bed-tax-grows-149-march/
Finally, I think it’s better to have one person responsible for maintaining/restoring a creek (the City) than a patchwork of parties. Would you rather have 3 different general contractors planning your house remodel or just one? I suspect this was one of the reasons the staff of the City’s Creeks Division recommended against the Veronica Meadows project.
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» on 05.31.12 @ 04:10 PM
Terrible traffic on Las Positas is a scare tactic. For years people were screaming that State St would be a parking lot if we allowed a Whole Foods on upper State St. I don’t see any difference since the opening of Whole Foods. I suspect we won’t see any real difference with this project either.
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» on 05.31.12 @ 04:38 PM
Traffic is bad on Las Positas because the no nothing never crowd thought they could stop growth by limiting road way capacity. The anti car nuts drooled over this and primed the fear monger machine. The state, who owns this road and proposed widening it decades ago, was more than happy to spend that money somewhere else and let Santa Barbara choke on its own ideology. Foothill road residence and most of southern Goleta surrounding UCSB inflicted the same lunatic wounds upon themselves.
Of course it didn’t stop growth and only caused the very traffic, congestion and air pollution the no growth crowd wanted to avoid. Ah planning at the ballot box by urban buffoons and knee jerking reactionaries. It really doesn’t get any better than that.
Build the friggen bridge and extend the road to Alan and make a loop. Widen Las Positas to 4 lanes with turn pockets and then the traffic won’t be so bad and your children will breathe better air. Or take that gun out of your holster, cock the hammer, aim at what’s left of your last foot and pull. Hell you don’t need those feet any more than the nose on your face.
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» on 06.07.12 @ 04:04 PM
The comments by environmentalists opposed to this project indicate that they haven’t read the EIR. The proposed bridge is 140 feet long and doesn’t approach the banks of the creek, even when its at the highest projected flood level. The traffic congestion on Las Positas at rush hour is almost entirely through traffic to Cliff Drive, and the number of vehicles this project would add to traffic is insignificant. The “wildlife” that could be displaced by this project have already been displaced by domestic pets using Elings Park and the Douglas Preserve, and Murillo has supported these “dog parks”. The animals that haven’t been scraped off Las Positas or Cliff Drive are classed as “urban nuisances” that can be euthanized. Veronica Spring was rerouted decades ago and flows through a pipe to a hole in the curb on Veronica Place. We probably have the only “natural” creek that flows out of a concrete storm channel - you can’t see it because of the plies of debris that have accumulated over the years, and its hard to get to with the invasive non-native reeds the city has allowed to occlude the area, but maybe the old fencing and discarded sewer pipes can be arranged to make a sign designating it as a Santa Barbara City park.
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