[Noozhawk’s note: One in a series of Friends of Goleta Beach Park commentaries about Goleta Beach Park.]
The Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department recently issued a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the impacts and potential mitigations for implementing a major remake of Goleta Beach Park.
A little history: In 2012, the county Board of Supervisors voted to move forward with the Goleta Beach 2.0 plan that wholeheartedly supports a position that Goleta Beach “Park” is not worth protecting as it’s going to be washed away through sea-level rising. Under this project, the rock revetment will be removed on the west end of the park — despite having proven itself time and time again as a protection barrier from the ravages of El Niño storms.
The plan also eliminates two parking lots, moves the utility corridor some 20 yards landward, and shuts the restrooms and picnic areas as needed when future storms will do damage without such protection. And, as such, it resulted in this DEIR, which embraces a philosophy called “managed retreat.”
According to Wikipedia, “in the context of coastal erosion, managed retreat allows an area that was not previously exposed to flooding by the sea to become flooded by removing coastal protection.” Let’s put this in perspective for Goleta Beach Park, between the state and the county from the 1940s through the early ’70s, fill material was placed on top of the sandspit at the mouth of the Goleta Slough to create what today is a 29-acre park used by 1.5 million visitors a year. So what the state and county built for the good citizens of our county by providing free recreation and enjoyment for 70 years, now is not worth protection for future generations!
Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf, who supports the Goleta Beach 2.0 plan, recently said, “I do not believe that anyone wants Goleta Beach Park to ‘wash away.’”
Yes, it’s difficult to understand what some politicians mean, but that’s exactly what she is supporting. She also said this in 2010: “We would have a larger place for the beach while still maintaining the park … if we move forward. It’s not the demise of Goleta Beach park; it is an enhancement.”
This reminds us again, it’s not what we say, but what we do. There is no settled science, facts or history of evidence that exist to prove that the ocean in front of Goleta Beach Park is rising. On the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site for sea-level rise trends, the data show that the Santa Barbara coastal zone has risen an average of 0.05 inches a year from 1973 to 2006.
But they are other stakeholders in this sandbox that are driving an agenda. On its website, the Environmental Defense Center says about our park: “EDC urged the county to remove the rock ‘seawall’ because such structures merely shift erosion to other beaches further down the coast. Rock sea walls are also very dangerous and limit the public’s ability to safely access the beach.”
Now there’s another one of those statements without foundation that sits out there in cyberspace. The rock buffer that our county Parks Department installed on the west end of our park is in fact above the high high-tide line. What this means is that these rocks are and will not be touched by the highest tides of the year and are only there for protection of landward assets in the event of future El Niño storms. In fact, these rocks are buried under several feet of sand and soil and don’t even see the light of day.
The other elephant in the room is the California Coastal Commission. The commission was formed in 1972 and its commissioners are appointed by Sacramento politicians, not elected by the general public. This quasi-judicial regulatory oversight commission and its staff have continued to trample private and public property rights.
The commission also has weighed in on the DEIR with an Aug. 30 staff report that defends “managed retreat” as the only alternative for Goleta Beach Park. But the commission has taken its environmental agenda a step further by documenting only an interest in defending Goleta “Beach.” The commission staff states that “grass parks are an amenity that can readily be provided at inland areas (and) … are not essential for the public to recreate on and access Goleta Beach.”
The arrogance of superiority should be appalling to every citizen of our county. Our county elected officials continue to state, for political cover, that their hands are tied because the Coastal Commission has jurisdiction over development of coastal zones and their permitted use. And to add insult to injury, the report does comment in great detail questioning that the Goleta Beach 2.0 plan hasn’t identified more protection for the Globose Dune beetles?
There are several municipal and county governments that are finally fighting back and taking control of public coastal land use decisions (Solana Beach, Malibu, Port Hueneme, Pismo Beach, Shell Beach), even as they start protection measures and obtain Coastal Commission permits after the fact. The real differences is these communities are putting in new protection measures and our government decision makers want to take ours out for no protection.
Thomas Jefferson wrote after affirming our individual rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Goleta Beach Park is a landfill created as a recreational paradise for our good citizens. If we want to protect it for future generations, it’s no different than the protections it’s been afforded historically. Landfills have continued to benefit citizens throughout the United States. If we were the city of Boston, how would our local politicians act? That the city is three times larger today because of landfill going back to 1630.
— Michael Rattray represents Friends of Goleta Beach Park.