As part of its efforts to restore native grasses to the area, Goleta city staff has fenced off a 1.5 acre portion of the Sperling Preserve at Ellwood.
According to Goleta Advance Planning Manager Anne Wells, this is the latest in a series of ongoing efforts to restore native grasses to the area. The project was started in 2005, with native seed harvest, storage and propagation. The 1.5 acres that was fenced off was weeded and planted with native grassland plants. The city will continue to monitor the progress of the seeding and planting, a process that could take up to five years, after which the fencing will be removed.
The project, which began in 2005, is part of an agreement made between Comstock Homes and the city, in which the developer was required to pay for the restoration to mitigate for loss of native grassland through its development. Comstock Homes, builder of the Bluffs at Sandpiper in the Ellwood area, was the developer that participated in the elaborate land swap completed in 2004 which traded development rights it had on the Ellwood Bluffs for a 36-acre swath of land further inland and approximately $20 million.