Fess Parker, the movie star-turned-real estate magnate with the sprawling, namesake oceanfront hotel, is offering to spend around $10 million on gang prevention locally — in return for a favor from the California Coastal Commission.
Parker’s idea, which he announced at a Santa Barbara Rotary Club luncheon Friday, is to ask the commission to waive the requirement that he build a youth hostel on a half-acre lot he owns at State and Montecito streets.
The hostel was a condition imposed upon him 15 years ago as part of the approval of a new hotel he is planning to build across Calle Cesar Chavez from his Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Hotel, where Friday’s luncheon was held. The idea was to ensure that Parker provide lodging for low-budget travelers in return for the approval to build an upscale facility.
“Fifteen years ago, Santa Barbara was different — today Santa Barbara is very, very different,” the towering, plainspoken Texan said to the audience of about 80 Rotarians. “People break into houses. We have theft, murder, rape. It’s a daily dive. What we need are people who can discourage that.”
In return for the exemption, Parker said he would sell the property — which he estimated is worth about $5 million — and donate the proceeds to gang-prevention expenses such as putting more police officers on the streets.
In addition, Parker — made famous by his portrayals of Davy Crockett for Disney movies in the 1950s and Daniel Boone on TV during the ‘60s — promised to donate another $5 million to the cause, in increments of $500,000 per year for 10 years. The money, he said, would “maintain a number of bodies on the street.”
“The city does not have enough manpower to protect our main areas,” he said. “I want to see if we can turn the Titanic around.
“If you got a bunch of boys who can’t keep their pants above their knees, and are not doing any shopping, I think those people should be directed to other locations — politely,” he added, drawing applause from the crowd. “I believe there are other hotels, other businesses, that will feel compelled to follow the lead of this money.”
Parker’s pitch elicited both praise and criticism Friday.
Robin Eschler, who has been a player in the local nonprofit landscape for years, said she believes the idea holds great promise.
“I applaud his bravery in stepping up and saying, ‘Hey, this is an idea, and what do you think?’” she said.
Eschler, who in 1999 started a still-existing program in which Rotary members give Christmas presents to low-income children in Santa Barbara, said she would like to help organize a multiorganizational effort to move forward on Parker’s idea.
“I don’t think his expertise is in building youth hostels,” she said. “I think this is smart business on his part. He’s saying, ‘I’d rather take that same bag of money and make some good in this community.’ … I think it’s a win-win.”
But Mayor Marty Blum was less enthused.
Blum was particularly annoyed by how Parker, at Friday’s luncheon, asked business owners to appeal to the City Council to put pressure on the Coastal Commission.
“Fess is putting the council in a difficult position,” said Blum, who did not attend the luncheon, although City Administrator Jim Armstrong was present. “If we say yes to what he wants to do, we’re saying no to the kids who are traveling. If we say no, we are saying no to the kids in gangs. It’s a lose-lose.”
She added, “Over the years he has asked in various ways to be relieved of various conditions. This is what he is doing with the Rotary Club. He’s asking them to ask us. I can’t wave a wand and make that go away. The Coastal Commission waves that wand.”
Also critical of the idea was local attorney Steve Barnes, who questioned Parker’s motives during the luncheon’s question-and-answer session.
“The Coastal Commission said as a condition of building a hotel that will serve wealthy people, you must build a youth hostel, so the beauty of Santa Barbara could be enjoyed by people with funds and without funds,” he said. “It hasn’t happened. I’m sensing there’s a resistance on your part to make that ever happen, and I don’t know why.”
Parker responded by saying he has agreed to do it and will do it, but that he wanted to try this approach first. Plus, he said, several youth hostels already exist in Santa Barbara, and none are successful.
On Friday, just one of the 12 Coastal Commissioners could be reached for comment. Commissioner Larry Clark, a representative from the Los Angeles area, said he needed to hear more.
“It sounds rather innovative or intriguing, but I don’t have a general honest reaction to it yet,” he said.
The condition to build a youth hostel actually was imposed by the commission 25 years ago, with the approval of what was then the Red Lion Hotel, and is now the 360-room DoubleTree.
But the mandate had no teeth, and the condition was reauthorized in the early 1990s, when Parker sought approval to build the 150-room hotel across the street. (Bulldozers have recently begun leveling the dirt, and his plans for the hostel are finished.)
In the late ‘90s, after Parker’s request to increase the size of the second hotel to 225 rooms from 150 was denied by the city Planning Commission, he appealed to the voters in a ballot measure, but was unsuccessful.
At Friday’s luncheon, one woman in the audience thanked Parker for cleaning up what was once a seedy beachfront area with the upkeep that has come with the DoubleTree.
“When I grew up here, I was never allowed to drive down in this area,” she said. “My parents were worried I’d break down and be stuck in the jungle. Thank you very much.”