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Phelps Road a Flash Point in Friction Between UCSB, Goleta
If you take a short walk down Phelps Road — the segment east of Storke Road — in Goleta, what you’ll find is a rather sleepy little suburban scene that is the Storke Ranch neighborhood. On the south side of Phelps is the bulk of the planned community, filled with single-family homes arranged in cul-de-sacs that access Phelps via a short feeder street called Bayberry Lane. On the north side of Phelps is the affordable housing component of the neighborhood as well as the Isla Vista Youth Project Children’s Center.
When school’s out, children on bikes roll up and down the street. Neighbors socialize as they walk their dogs. When it’s hot, neighbors on both sides of the street stroll to the swimming pools in the main part of the complex.
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All of that will change, Storke Ranch residents say, if UCSB carries out its long-range development plan, which includes punching through Phelps Road’s cul-de-sac to connect with UCSB’s Mesa Road and the faculty and student housing on the other side.
“It will be an enormous change to our way of life,” Storke Ranch neighbor Cyril Humphries said. One of the main things he, his family and his neighbors are concerned about is the projected increase in traffic that would run up and down the two-lane segment of Phelps Road.
“I heard something like one car every six seconds,” said resident Kelly Hildner, referring to the development plan’s projected increase in street traffic, a result of an estimated 5,000 additional students planned by 2025 and a 1,700-member increase in faculty and support staff to accommodate the student population.
More people would use the road to get to the student and staff housing just on the other side of the chain-link gate that separates Phelps and Mesa roads, neighbors say, especially since UCSB plans to increase the number and density of housing units on its property.
This increase in traffic, they suspect, will be further compounded by people who want to avoid the congestion at the nearby Hollister Avenue/Storke Road intersection, which receives the bulk of cars going to and from the Camino Real Marketplace.
Luann Miller, executive director of the Isla Vista Youth Project’s Children’s Center, shares the Storke Ranch residents’ concerns.
“The Children’s Center is licensed for nearly 100 children and is situated right on Phelps Road,” she said. “Many of the parents walk to the center, pushing their babies and toddlers in strollers ... We are concerned about the impact of increased traffic as well as increased noise and air pollution should it become a through street and an alternate route to El Colegio.”
“Why has UCSB given into the car? Given rising oil prices, the internal combustion engine will likely be gone by 2025,” predicted Humphries, suggesting that an alternative-power shuttle would be a better solution than the potential widening and extension of Phelps Road and thousands of additional parking spaces on campus.
This outcry is but one of several situations UCSB might expect as it gets closer to completing its long-range development plan, which anticipates the next 20 years of growth for the campus.
Having earned a reputation as one of the world’s foremost research institutions, UCSB is planning to beef up its academic plan and, concurrently, its physical development. The university has determined that more housing is necessary to attract and retain faculty, staff and students.
A vigorous public outreach campaign has been under way for more than a year as UCSB representatives Marc Fisher, associate vice chancellor for campus design and facilities, and Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas presented the plan to segments of the community, informing residents of the proposed development, the increased population and the university’s plans to mitigate the effects on the community.
The public outreach is in contrast to the last long-range development plan, which was carried out with minimal input from the community. This time, the public comment period was extended to 90 days from 45 to accommodate all comments. Lucas says UCSB will hear the public’s input as the plan makes its way to the state Coastal Commission and the UC Regents later this year.
“It’s not over yet,” he said. “People will have the chance to comment on the plan, and we’ll respond to their concerns.”
The answer to the Phelps Road conundrum, it turns out, may not even lie with the university. While the city can’t directly control the amount or density of the population that UCSB intends to house on campus (UCSB-owned property is considered state land and thus not under local jurisdiction), Phelps Road is owned by the city of Goleta.
“The university assumes away a number of issues,” said Steve Chase, Goleta’s planning and environmental services director. It needs to make certain assumptions, but by doing so with issues such as traffic, UCSB chooses not to address them, he said. “There’s no contingency planning,” he added.
The reason Phelps Road hasn’t been extended so far has to do with community development and wetlands protections. Goleta is wary of the effects of the increased population coming from UCSB’s development. While the long-range development plan assumes the university’s population generally will remain on campus and therefore be able to get back and forth using the plan’s much-touted Greensward, according to Chase, chances are that the increase in the student and faculty population still will affect traffic in the community.
What the situation boils down to, Chase says, is the community’s tolerance and the city’s intentions when it comes to dealing with development.
“It comes down to whether you want to use an intersection such as Storke and Phelps as a growth-control measure by not adding lanes to discourage growth, or do you create your intersections to accommodate what’s going on around them land-use-wise?” Chase said.
Under the transportation element of Goleta’s General Plan, the policy has been to curb growth. If those rules remain in place after the city finishes its ongoing revisions to the plan, it’s not likely that Phelps will widen or be extended. It’s important to remember, however, that UCSB is a major economic engine that has been instrumental in the shaping of the Goleta Valley, Chase said. There’s a natural tension between the university, which is striving to be one of the best in the world, and a community that’s trying to determine its own development.
“That (tension) needs to shake out through dialogue, public meetings and comment letters,” he said.
Goleta has not yet made formal comments on the long-range development plan. The staff is analyzing the plan and writing letters, which will be brought to the Goleta City Council’s June 17 meeting. The public comment period for UCSB’s plan ends June 23. Comments can be made at the upcoming public hearing, by mail or by e-mail.
Meanwhile, Storke Ranch residents are gearing up for a UCSB-sponsored public hearing at Isla Vista Theater at 7 p.m. June 4. The homeowners association has decided to hire an attorney to look into the plan and may contract with a traffic engineer.
“It’s a bit like David and Goliath,” Humphries said. “But, David won in the end.”
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» on 05.28.08 @ 04:28 AM
It is ludicrous that they did not REQUIRE this road to connect when Storke Ranch was built. It is the only logical connector to Los Carneros Rd - not just UCSB. And you wonder why Storke/Hollister is so bad!
I don’t believe there are ANY houses that front on Phelps - for it’s entire length. It already is a connector road. Put a good crosswalk in at the Daycare center and get on with it. I can’t imagine how anyone at Storke Ranch truly believes that this would stay a Cul-de-sac forever.
» on 05.28.08 @ 11:44 AM
Didn’t Storke Ranch homeowners know (when they bought their houses) that Phelps connecting to Los Carneros was always part of Goleta’s transportation plans (dating back to the county days)?
» on 05.28.08 @ 09:54 PM
Phelps Road, from Storke to Mesa, was paid for by the developers of Storke Ranch for the sole purpose of a Fire Lane Access. The Fire Dept. trucks are currently allowed access through a key pad gate (from Phelps to Mesa). No written disclosure statement that I’ve received, as an original SR owner, cited an agreement between the University and S.B. County to specifically allow an easement from Phelps through to Mesa. (That includes Title Preliminary Report, and Homeowner CC& R’s)
At a recent crowded meeting between SR Owners and the University, when asked if El Colegio Road would be widened (from Los Carneros to the intersection in front of Francisco Torres)to remedy the increased traffic due to University construction plans, the spokesman responded,“If there is enough funding.” In other words, the University is not planning on it. Why not take the responsible position of providing proper traffic solutions, preferrably alternative, prior to building housing for another 7,000 University students and faculty? Why put the solution solely on the people of Goleta?
The same spokesman also told us that the time to voice our concerns was “...not until the project started.”
With current traffic levels, at less than two hundred per day, balloon to what UCSB reported to be in excess of 7,000 per day, access Phelps to Mesa, that will change any and all encouragement of alternative transportation. Bike and foot traffic already have access through via a nice bike trail, with signage, and a well-utilized pedestrian pass through the gated fence.
In response to Westof Storker:
There is already a cross walk from Bayberry to the Day Care. But, when you add the numbers according to the University LRDP (that’s a current 200 cars per day that will be increased to an astounding excess of 7,000 cars per day), it’s almost un-imaginable. Let’s see a mother hold the hand of her small child, while pushing a stroller carrying her baby, cross that volume of traffic to get to the very valued Day Care?
Also, the Storke Ranch Apartments playground is ON PHELPS, without any safety barriers. Children play on the slide, have games of Red Rover on the grass, and families conduct weekend celebrations, on the edge, or Front (to use your words) of Phelps.
I encourage you to take an objective and empathetic look for yourself, at the proximity of the street and the Day Care, and playground. Consider the safety of your own child while seven thousand cars pass within twenty feet, each and every day? Consider the county not allowing you to have a fence over the height of five feet, at the back of your house, then increase traffic by over 3,500%?
I truly hope you can be empathetic to our perspective. Thanks for the civil discussion:)
» on 05.29.08 @ 05:50 AM
I believe that the University needs to cut back on the entire number of units on the Storke side of campus, not “just” leave Phelps alone. They are also planning on putting more housing in the parking lot of the old Fransisco Torres Res Hall adding yet more traffic to Storke Road in addition to the already approved Faculty Staff housing, the Sierra Madre Project across the road. Traffic already moves too fast and the marked increase would increase the danger to the families walking to IV Elementary School even more. If they were at all creative, they could put some of the housing on the other side of campus where it would exit onto Ward Memorial Blvd.
» on 05.30.08 @ 02:29 PM
The first people who commented here, obviously do not live in the area. If you did, and you actually walked around the area, you would already know how dangerous it it for pedestrians. I walk my one child to and from IV Elementary School on almost a daily basis. We constantly watch college students speeding, driving recklessly and irresponsibly from El Colegio to Storke Road area. Many times we have almost been hit by drivers turning right that do not stop for walkers that have the right away to cross the street. College bicyclists are just as guilty of giving the area extreme danger as they ride on the wrong side of the road, cut across streets, and ride on sidewalks not met for them.
Storke Ranch owns property on both sides of Phelps Road. Our tennis courts, orchards, RV parking are on the opposite side from the homes. Opening up this dead end will only increase the danger to walkers in the area and split our complex off from our other facilities. There are many roads in the Goleta area that have a dead end similar to this feature….look at Berkeley Road in the Meadows condo complex off of Fairview!
The UC system and the State of California is just looking for a revenue boost for the State budget issues by increasing the college populations excessively. It is really sad that they cannot come in and actually work with local government to solve the bigger impacts they cause around their campuses.
Take a drive out at UCSB….. the roads are a disaster with potholes galore, bizarre roadways, and ill-kept landscaping with weeds galore on their properties. But, the highrise buildings just keep coming with all the construction noise and dirt. Just keep piling in the money makers while sacrificing the surrounding area!!!
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