The year 2008 in Santa Barbara County started out with a leak. An oil leak. In fact, many oil leaks.
Greka Energy Corp. was repeatedly in the news in January for a series of leaks, ruptures and spills that started in December 2007. As federal, state and local regulators came in to mop up the mess, faulty pipelines and containers released hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil and other hazardous materials onto the ground and into winter streams. Greka was named the county’s worst inland oil-spiller. Local environmentalists ran out of patience. News outlets ran out of creative headlines.
The company’s troubles aren’t over. The county recently issued another stop-work order in response to several reports of leaks last weekend at Greka’s Bell Canyon lease. No word yet on when the ban will be lifted.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., may have received the most votes in California’s Democratic presidential primary in February, but now-President-elect Barack Obama was the choice of Santa Barbara County Democrats. For Republicans, Sen. John McCain of Arizona beat former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
After kicking off its sixth year as a city in February, Goleta took on the first of a series of amendments to its General Plan, to the consternation of the local supporters of the original Goleta General Plan. The list of changes includes those suggested by city staff to better conform to the realities of land use planning, to amendments suggested by Bacara Resort & Spa and other entities wishing to develop on their property.
Rumblings over revenue neutrality got started in March when Goleta looked into its tax-sharing agreement with Santa Barbara County.
Goleta shares the most revenue with its county out of any California city that has incorporated since 1992. Negotiations were not easy: The county is coming to terms with its own multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, and a couple of months down the line Goleta would consider — but not put forth — a sales-tax measure that could have derailed the county’s Measure A effort.
Just how deep the county hole was became more evident in April, when proposed budget cuts for the Department of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services threatened the jobs of 70 people, possibly leaving 700 patients in the lurch. Ultimately, the cuts were not as steep as proposed, but resulted in fewer services nonetheless.
In May, Santa Barbara lost a beloved member of its community when Father Virgil Cordano died at 89 after a bout with throat cancer. The popular priest, in his trademark brown habit, was the spiritual guide, counselor and friend to generations of Santa Barbarans.
UCSB’s Long-Range Development Plan got its big public airing in June. The planning document lays out UCSB’s intentions to provide more housing to students and faculty, while increasing enrollment by 5,000 by 2020. Despite the university’s greenest intentions, many have been skeptical over the kinds of impacts that population growth will have on the surrounding communities. Currently, UCSB is expected to recirculate the LRDP’s environmental document soon.
In early July, the Gap Fire came alarmingly close to the Goleta Valley. The blaze, which lasted through the month, scorched about 9,500 acres of mountainside. No lives and minimal property were lost, although officials are continuing to keep tabs on winter rains, which could erode the bare hillsides and cause flooding below.
Meanwhile, the developers of the Bishop Ranch property in Goleta, withdrew their application to develop the 245-acre swath of land zoned for agricultural use. The developers may not have sensed support from the city at this time, but said they will continue to keep tabs on Goleta’s growing need for residential projects.
Oil prices were big in August as motorists faced record-high fuel costs at the pumps and President Bush lifted the moratorium on offshore oil drilling, making it look as if there could be intensified oil and gas operations locally. The county Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 — with Supervisors Salud Carbajal and Janet Wolf in dissent — to write a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asking him to change California’s policy to allow for more oil operations.
Local races for public office continued to heat up in August as candidates stepped up their campaigns. Former Assembly members Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, and Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, duked it out for the 19th state Senate District seat vacated by termed-out Republican Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks. Doreen Farr and Steve Pappas vied for the 3rd Supervisorial District “swing seat” in their runoff election.
Goleta residents were shocked in September by the hit-and-run death of 14-year-old Tina Veloz-Payne, who was struck by a vehicle as she tried to cross Highway 101 on her way home to El Encanto Heights from a belated Independence Day celebration at Girsh Park. Veloz-Payne’s fateful decision to take the dangerous shortcut renewed questions about the freeway overcrossing in that area that was supposed to alleviate the problem of a city bisected by a freeway. Construction is expected to begin on one overcrossing in 2009.
Meanwhile, the ongoing mortgage crisis reared its ugly head on the South Coast, where home prices fell from their typical $1 million median. Except for the ultra-tony enclaves such as Hope Ranch and Montecito, where the median price actually rose, the rest of the South Coast was seeing median prices at $845,000 in September. Some predict the market will pick back up in 2009, but others are not so sure.
The decade-in-the-making Santa Barbara Ranch project cleared the Board of Supervisors on a 3-2 vote in October, making way for 71 luxury homes on the Gaviota coast and foothills of Dos Pueblos Ranch. Since then, however, the state Coastal Commission has twice sent the proposal for the development of the coastal section back to the county, citing deficiencies.
The tension was high in November — too high, perhaps for Eddie Van Tassel, an Iraq War veteran who engaged in an armed early morning standoff with Santa Barbara police at the La Cumbre Road bridge over Highway 101. With morning commute traffic snarled for four hours, police managed to take Van Tassel into custody with no one harmed. Witnesses said Van Tassel was protesting the war in Iraq and chanting in support of Obama and vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
After months and months of campaign promises, speeches and forums, voters finally took it to the polls in November in what became a record-high voter turnout in the county — the third time this year. Obama beat McCain by a fairly wide margin locally and nationwide.
Some local races — state Senate, 3rd Supervisorial District, Carpinteria City Council, Santa Barbara School Board — were nailbiters to the end, as candidates ran neck-and-neck for those posts. Strickland triumphed over Jackson in the Senate, while Farr squeezed by Pappas for the Board of Supervisors. A recount requested by Pappas later turned up just about the same results.
An apparently careless mistake ignited the Tea Fire in the Montecito foothills above Westmont College the evening of Nov. 13. The wildfire destroyed 218 homes and burned almost 2,000 acres in Montecito and Santa Barbara. Authorities said 10 individuals were responsible for the fire, which was found to be a result of an improperly extinguished bonfire at the private Tea Gardens. The fire raged through Westmont, destroying faculty housing, dorms and classroom buildings. Renowned Mount Calvary Retreat House was left in charred ruins. One death was linked to the blaze.
Things got hot at the Santa Barbara School District in December when trustee Bob Noel called for Superintendent Brian Sarvis’ resignation, questioning his “moral authority” and “temperament.” A week later, a coalition of community leaders and former school board members called on Noel to do the same.
After months of wrangling with the Montecito Planning Commission, developer Rick Caruso won an important victory when the Board of Supervisors cleared the way for the Miramar Hotel renovation to move forward. Things aren’t smooth sailing yet for Caruso, as at least one neighbor plans to take her protest to the Coastal Commission.
Write to sfernandez@noozhawk.com