Can Isla Vista become a city? The Isla Vista Community Services District Board of Directors (IVCSD) wants to find out.

The district’s board of directors earlier this month approved funding for a fiscal analysis to research if the half-square-mile community located adjacent to UC Santa Barbara can financially support itself as a city.

Isla Vista is in an unincorporated part of Santa Barbara County, making the county Board of Supervisors the main authority over the area. The community of roughly 15,000 is largely filled with college students who attend UC Santa Barbara or Santa Barbara City College.

It does have a limited governing body: the IVCSD, which is funded by an eight-percent user utility tax approved in 2018.

The district — formed in 2016 — has limited control over services like water and street lighting. It has to get permission from the county for issues like parking enforcement or changing trash services.

IVCSD Board President Katherine Carmichael said while more conversations will be needed about what services Isla Vista needs, the fiscal analysis funding is a first step.

“Hopefully, this will be a first step towards getting our service level to match our need level,” Carmichael said.

Spencer Brandt, a longtime Isla Vista resident and IVCSD board member, said the study will determine if the “math works” for the community to financially support itself as a city.

“…this could be something that’s good for Isla Vista,” Brandt said.  “And before any other steps are taken, before we even really have the community conversation about what the right path is, we need to know if the math works out.”

Berkson Associates will conduct the study over the next three to four months. The firm will examine revenue from Isla Vista’s property taxes and how much the county spends on Isla Vista services.

The firm also did the study for Goleta’s incorporation in the early 2000s. 

The study will cost $50,000. The IVCSD will fund $40,000 of the cost; UC Santa Barbara Associated Students will kick in the remaining $10,000.

This will be the community’s fourth attempt to explore cityhood since the 1970s. The last attempt was in 2015.

Brandt said there are a few things that have changed in Isla Vista since 2015 that make cityhood more viable.

The district’s user utility tax now generates $1.7 million in locally controlled revenue.

The previous cityhood study also examined the cost of police services when crime was 50% higher, according to Brandt.

He said Isla Vista has become much safer since the community “invested in more alternative policing and peer-to-peer support programs.”

Some UC Santa Barbara students told Noozhawk they support IVCSD’s efforts and believe having a centralized city government would help with some longstanding issues.

Third-year political science major E.J. Raad, the external vice president for local affairs with UC Santa Barbara’s Associated Students, said the community has problems with county policing practices. 

“Policing practices are chosen by the (Santa Barbara County) Sheriff’s Office, and obviously the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t live here and isn’t accountable to any authority in Isla Vista — they’re accountable to the county,” Raad said.

Raad said he is excited about the idea of having students and Isla Vista residents on a city council.

Currently, he said, “we have a system where it’s people who don’t live here making decisions for everyone who does, which seems pretty backwards.”

Third-year economics and philosophy major Noah Luken, an off-campus senator for Associated Students, said he hopes housing conditions and prices can be regulated if Isla Vista becomes a city. 

“​​You can create an agency or a board that is responsible for taking care of that and making sure that property owners are keeping up their properties and ensuring that tenants are taken care of,” Luken said. 

Despite a constant population turnover, Luken and Radd said they think that the IVCSD has proven that a central government can be sustainable in Isla Vista. 

“Part of the beauty of creating a city from the ground up, with input from the people who live here, is that they could create it in a way that would work for them,” Luken said.