The promoters of UCSB’s Long-Range Development Plan gave residents the floor Wednesday as they took public comment from the university’s neighbors and other interested parties at Isla Vista Theater.
“Tonight is for the public to comment and for the university to listen,” said Tye Simpson, UCSB director of the office of campus planning and design.
One by one, residents aired their concerns over the university’s planned expansion, a project that will encompass the next 18 years, add about 2.5 million square feet in new development, create an estimated 4,000 jobs and add 5,000 students to UCSB’s population, along with almost 2,000 new faculty and support staff positions for an expanded academic program. UCSB has acknowledged significant local effects of the LDRP including changes to traffic, air quality and scenic views.
“I feel there’s a carrying capacity to this area, and adding 6,746 people would cause unmitigable impacts to the community,” said Kelly Hildner, a wetlands biologist and a resident of the Storke Ranch neighborhood, a community just inside the the Goleta side of the border between UCSB and the city.
Hildner and her fellow Storke Ranch neighbors are battling to keep the university from making good on plans to connect the segment of Phelps Road that runs through their community with Mesa Road on the other side of a gate where Phelps ends. Punching that street through, they say, would create a traffic hazard for the children who regularly play in and around that two-lane street.
In a four-part presentation by representatives from the Santa Barbara County Action Network, UCSB representatives were asked if the the university’s plans took into account the adequacy of housing and infrastructure during UCSB’s drive to increase its student population by 1 percent each year.
“A 5,000-enrollment increase exceeds the water potentials of Goleta,” Dick Flacks said. Water, the university’s plan projects, would be provided in part by the Goleta Water District, but UCSB, GWD’s biggest customer, would have to find other sources to come up with a sufficient supply.
Isla Vista resident Florence Klein talked about the effect an increased population on campus would have in conjunction with the increased population projected in Isla Vista as a result of the state housing mandate. “Nobody has taken into consideration an evacuation plan for Isla Vista,” she said, pointing out the only two roads people in Isla Vista would have to use to escape, both of which would suffer significant congestion as a result of development.
But it wasn’t all complaints and fears that residents put forth. Several solutions were floated to answer the concern over increased traffic and congestion on local roads. A light rail system was widely supported, if UCSB and the city of Goleta could collaborate on alternative transit in an around the university. A good alternative transit system would ease the strain on roads, air quality gas consumption and the need to use university space to add about 3,500 new parking spaces, they said. Prohibiting freshmen and sophomores from using their cars on campus also would keep the roads less crowded.
Likewise, residents supported the idea of a satellite campus in an area that could take the additional people and use the additional jobs.
The LRDP got support from the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Coastal Housing Coalition, which praised the university, one of Goleta’s largest employers, for the plan that would create new jobs and housing.
The university promised responses to the comments in writing, after the comment period for the LRDP and its accompanying environmental document.
Comments can be sent to the university by postal mail or e-mail. The public comment period ends June 23.
Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com.
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