The Hot Springs Trail above Montecito is supposed to be a peaceful, natural refuge, but factions warring over trailhead parking have turned paradise into pandemonium.
To relieve the congestion and increase access to the public trail, Santa Barbara County wants to add parking spaces along the public right of way on East Mountain Drive. Neighbors are outraged over the proposal, which they say will wreck Montecito’s semi-rural character.
“The whole idea of Montecito is to be this little community, with small roads and trails, not to just be some giant parking lot and multilane roads,” longtime resident Chad Chase said. “This goes against the fabric of the entire community and what we stand for.”
Emotions erupted during a discussion of the Hot Springs Trail at the Montecito Association’s Land Use Committee meeting Tuesday. Committee members and residents are not happy with the county’s proposal and are concerned with how First District Supervisor Das Williams is handling the situation.
Williams, in an interview with Noozhawk on Wednesday, said some Montecito residents are not telling the truth. He said he does not support a plan to install 62 parking spaces along East Mountain Drive, although that number has been floated around the community and appears in the legal documents filed by four neighbors looking to block the parking proposal.
Williams said 62 spaces is the theoretical maximum number of spaces that could be installed, a number mentioned first in a conversation by county Public Works Department Director Scott McGolpin. It was never a real number, he said.
“There is no proposal, there has never been a proposal to build 62 parking spots,” Williams said.
Instead, he said he has proposed adding four parking spaces to the existing eight at the trailhead at the intersection of East Mountain Drive and Riven Rock Road and four “bit by bit.”
“That is essentially what they are suing over because that wasn’t a good enough deal for them,” Williams said of the four plaintiffs, Christopher Anderson, Ross Bagdasarian, Peter Barker and James Moreley. “I don’t know how we could be more reasonable than that.”
McGolpin in a signed declaration said that he mentioned in a meeting in the driveway of one Montecito homeowner that the county “could” restore more than 60 spaces, but that instead it would take a “light touch” to minimize impacts to residents. He said in the declaration that the county is looking to restore “about a dozen” parking spaces on East Mountain Drive.
The Hot Springs Trail has long been a popular hike for locals. The county provides eight parking spaces at the base of the trail. If those are full, people usually found legal — and illegal — spots to park on nearby streets.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, posts on TikTok, Instagram and other social media sites turned the trail into a regional destination.
The county contends that private homeowners have deliberately blocked public access to the Hot Springs Trail by placing boulders, walls, landscaping, illegal “No Parking” signs and other unpermitted private encroachments in the county road rights-of-way that otherwise would be available for parking.
It hasn’t stopped people from coming. Hikers have been observed bathing in the historic hot springs, which are located a little more than a mile up the canyon. Others are lugging firewood up the trail to camp overnight, even though campfires are not permitted in Los Padres National Forest, where the springs are.
Signs at the authorized parking area state that there is no overnight parking, but some people are willing to take the risk of a $37 parking ticket, considering it essentially the cost of an overnight parking permit. The problem worsens on Saturdays and Sundays.
“We are witnessing on weekends a turnaround of about 200 cars per hour,” said Kohanya Groff, one of the neighbors who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s gotten so bad that even if more parking is created, cars are turning around, parking in front of fire hydrants, parking overnight.
“It has just become such a hazard.”
California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Logie said officers have written at least 400 parking citations so far this year.
“It seems natural that more people would come, given more spots,” he said. “It seems like a common sense thing.”
Logie said he wasn’t prepared to talk about the politics of the situation, but from a public safety standpoint, it’s dangerous when people park illegally because they potentially force traffic across the center line into the opposite lane. Pedestrians and bicyclists also have to walk or veer around vehicles.
He said towing cars is a much more effective remedy, but towing infuriates motorists and increases the potential for confrontation. He said that even though Riven Rock Road is striped along the shoulders, the lack of no parking signs gives people reason to dispute the tow.
“Our goal is to keep everyone safe without causing a riot,” Logie said.
Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Lt. Butch Arnoldi said deputies recently issued about 50 citations to people choosing to park overnight. Doing so requires appropriate staffing levels, he said.
“We can’t do it everyday,” Arnoldi said. “We can only do it when it is available.”
Cori Hayman, who also spoke at the meeting, said the county isn’t considering several factors, such as the need for restrooms or even crosswalks on East Mountain Drive.
“More parking is not in line with the Montecito Community Plan,” she noted.
Some of the speakers at the meeting also raised concerns about the fire danger and risk of allowing more people to park near the Hot Springs Trail.
“We have a horrible, horrible fire situation up there,” said Sharon Byrne, executive director of the Montecito Association.
Montecito Fire Protection District Chief Kevin Taylor said his agency commissioned a study to evaluate the ability of the current infrastructure to support an emergency evacuation of residents. Many Montecito residents want to see the results of that study before adding more parking spaces.
“The fire risk is real,” Taylor said.
The four plaintiffs in the complaint against the county, represented by attorney David Cousineau, a partner with the high-powered legal firm of Cappello & Noël, contend the county must first complete a California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, review before the county can proceed with its Hot Springs Trailhead Parking Design & Construction Project.
The Superior Court hearing for a preliminary injunction against the county is set for May 6.
Williams said he wants critics of the the parking spaces to stop mentioning the 62 figure because it’s “disingenuous.”
“It is fear mongering,” he said. “It is a way to heighten the conflict between trail users and homeowners, which is bad. Something bad can happen out there if we allow people to just be ramped up.
“If we purposely fearmonger among either trail users or neighbors, that’s a way to create conflict and conflict of that kind is not good for the community.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
