State officials gathered public feedback Thursday night in Goleta on future access options for Hollister Ranch’s shoreline, which includes more than eight miles of public beaches west of Gaviota State Park.

The workshops seek input on the Hollister Ranch Public Access Program and ask residents to weigh in on six early access concepts as the state develops potential land-based routes to the shoreline. The effort is being led by the California Coastal Commission, the California Coastal Conservancy, the State Lands Commission and California State Parks.

The Goleta event was the second of two in-person workshops held this week, with a final virtual session to be held via Zoom on Monday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 

Thursday’s workshop began with a short video outlining the history of coastal access at Hollister Ranch and showing what the beaches look like today. After the presentation, attendees moved through the room at their own pace to review display boards, maps and staff explanations describing the six access plan options and the goals and constraints behind them. Each board included questions that participants could respond to anonymously with a sticky note.

Linda Locklin, the Coastal Access Program manager for the California Coastal Commission, was among the staff helping guide residents through the materials and said the workshops are being held early to comply with AB 1680, which requires robust public outreach before drafting access alternatives.

“We want people to understand the scope of what we’re talking about and get their input so then we can narrow it down in order to prepare for the environmental review,” she said.

Locklin said the planning effort began in 2020 with the goal of completing a draft plan the following year, but progress slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to kind of shift gears, slow down a little bit, but we’re back up to speed,” she said. “We have the same four agencies, and we have one person for each agency, and they’re the exact same people that we had when we started, so we have great continuity.”

Locklin said many attendees at previous workshops told staff they needed more time to think through the access options because of the complexity of the issues. 

“One of the most difficult parts of this,” she said, “is that most people have never been out to Hollister Ranch.”

Locklin said all of the workshops follow the same format and that all workshop materials and interactive questions are also available online, so residents can review the boards and submit comments through Dec. 19 even if they did not attend a session.

Exploring Access Trade-Offs

James “Jim” Newland, a historian and planner with California State Parks, stood at the board for Access Program Option 1, which proposes a managed group access system in which a group leader must complete an orientation before obtaining a permit to access designated beaches.

“This one’s pretty straightforward — probably the most controlled,” Newland said. “But there are a lot of questions about how this would work, how it should work, do you think it should work at all?”

He explained that the approach requires minimal infrastructure improvements but would still need ongoing management to administer the orientation and permit program.

Newland said the workshop format helps residents think through how each access option would function on the ground, especially for people who have never been to the ranch.

As attendees moved through the boards, he said many began raising questions that come from seeing the site’s limitations, such as the fact that there is only one road in and out. 

“What happens when there is a fire? How many people should be in there, not be in there? Should we close it during a red flag warning?” Newland said. “That’s the kind of details we get to eventually.”

If a guided access model works smoothly, Newland said, an operator could “double this,” while problem areas or visitor behavior issues might lead to scaling back or redirecting tours. In some cases, he said, early success could justify testing “some limited vehicle access or maybe a trail to the first beach,” depending on what conditions allow.

Beyond the guided tour model, the workshop presented five other conceptual access options, ranging from low-intensity guided trips to higher-capacity models that could include pedestrian access, shuttle service or limited vehicle access to certain beaches.

Each option was displayed with its potential benefits, challenges and feasibility ratings, giving attendees a chance to compare how different approaches might affect the ranch’s single access road, sensitive habitats and overall visitor capacity.

Public Voices Mixed Views

Several attendees at the Goleta workshop said seeing the access options laid out visually helped them think through the trade-offs for the ranch’s isolated shoreline. Some residents said they were learning about the site’s constraints for the first time, while others came with their own concerns about how additional access could change the area.

Blake Williams, a lifelong Santa Barbara County resident and surfer, said he worries that expanding access would damage what he described as “one of the last preserved pieces of coastline in Southern California.”

He said more public use would mean “more people, more trash, more pollution,” and questioned whether the state can manage a new access program when nearby parks, including Gaviota State Park, “can barely keep upkeep.”

Williams added that some access already exists for those willing to walk in from the state park or reach the beaches by boat.

Registration for Monday’s workshop is available here.