The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will be presented with an update to the Recreation Master Plan being managed by the county Parks Division under the Community Services Department.
The plan is designed to provide an understanding of existing recreational resources, needed improvements to improve them throughout the county and to provide a means for public agencies to collaborate in the future.
How the Board of Supervisors responds could mark a major turning point in how recreation resources are managed in the future.
Expanding the Scope
The Community Services Department will be requesting an increase in project funding for the master plan by a bit over $400,000 — and more important — asking the supervisors for direction as to whether the board would support an expansion of the scope of the plan to include possible amendments to the County Comprehensive Plan, the county’s community plans and various zoning ordinances.
The rationale for the request is fairly straight forward: In terms of priority, the county’s Land Use Element places recreation at the bottom of the list when it comes to what is acceptable.
For instance, public works, public service, public utility and oil drilling uses are considered compatible with agriculture in the county’s Comprehensive Plan. Recreation is not.
An example of one of the changes that could support increased recreational opportunities is simply adding “public and private recreation” to the list of allowable uses in the Land Use Element.
Along with changes like this, other revisions to the Comprehensive Plan that will serve to prioritize recreation could be a game changer.
Project Phases
County Parks currently is collaborating with the county Planning and Development Department and its consulting partner, Kennesaw, Georgia-based Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, on several aspects of the plan.
These include development of an inventory of all recreational resources throughout the county, whether trails, open space areas, parks, urban recreational facilities and the like; a needs assessment to determine what’s missing or what the public wants; and developing policies or adjusting existing policies to meet those needs.
The bottom line is simple: to provide more recreational opportunities, especially in more rural areas where there is little publicly owned open space; to ensure that recreation plays a much larger role in the county’s land use decision-making process; and to create the type of incentives that will encourage landowner participation.
Building the Inventory
“Our first step was to make contact with all of the cities and look at all their existing inventory,” park supervisor Jeff Lindgren explained. “We wanted to understand what type of facilities they have on the ground.”
Along the way with the support of the Santa Barbara County Trails Council, citizen committees were put together for various parts of the county to work locally on building a database of trails and other resources to be included in the inventory.
“The surveys we’ve done, the public meetings, pop-up events, the workshops and the work done to this point have given us a pretty good idea of what we have and what the public wants,” Lindgren added.
Assessing Needs
In the spring, the focus will be on conducting a needs assessment.
“Now that we know what we have and what the public wants,” Lindgren added, “the question is how do we get the things that are missing? Do we need new parks? Do we need new trails? Do we need new campgrounds?
“Can we repurpose existing parks and facilities so they serve the communities and their needs better?”
Areas that the public has identified include the Gaviota coast, including the need for increased camping opportunities, access in the Goleta Valley to the Santa Ynez Mountains, connections between the Orcutt Hills and Las Flores Ranch trails networks and south to the Point Sal area, among others.
While there may be more opportunities in the urban areas to identify public spaces where recreational needs can be met, the same may not be true in rural areas where the majority of the land is privately owned.
Working out how to deal with this is where the rubber may meet the road. Assessing needs may be the easy part. Figuring out how to meet them will be critical.
Crunch Time Coming
The major issue confronting the county when it comes to expanding recreational opportunities is they are often not on public lands or within the ability of the Board of Supervisors to meet — at least under current land-use policies.
Completion of the California Coastal Trail along the Gaviota coast, for instance, or a trail along the Santa Ynez River corridor linking Buellton and Solvang or access to the mountains above Goleta will require the development of public-private partnerships.
That is where the request to expand the scope of the plan to explore possible amendments to the County Comprehensive Plan, community plans and zoning ordinances comes in.
Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann is leading the effort to encourage her colleagues to adopt a number of changes to these as a way of encouraging win-win situations between private landowners and the public.
“We need to begin looking at ways to encourage land owners to work with the county in a way that supports their interests while at the same time providing new public access,” she said.
“That could include a change in zoning to allow additional uses or a streamlined process to add something like an RV camp in exchange for a trail easement.”
For Hartmann, this isn’t just about adding more trails or parks to the county’s inventory.
“I see a very strong link between being outdoors and and healthy living,” she added, “a step toward healthier lifestyles.
“I believe in is the active living, healthy living, and the well-being of our community and the outdoors is an important part of that.”
Public Benefit Projects
To that end, Hartman is an enthusiastic proponent of what she is calling “public benefit projects,” basically the type of public-private partnerships that, hopefully, will benefit everyone.
The concept is simple: expand allowable uses such as recreation in the Land Use Element; change permitting requirements to streamline the process for public benefit projects; and flex zoning to allow uses that otherwise might not be allowed.
Simple in concept but perhaps less so in practice.
The targeted changes noted above could provide the incentive for owners such as those along the Santa Ynez River corridor to provide easements and, in some cases, portions of their land for use in constructing amenities such as parking, restrooms and interpretive areas.
Another area of concern for Hartmann is the need to preserve agricultural operations, many of which are facing difficulties, and develop ways to generate new income opportunities. Agro-tourism is a newly emerging type of recreation designed to introduce recreation into areas currently zoned for agriculture.
Changes to land-use policies and zoning could be very helpful in reinvigorating areas where agriculture is in distress.
High Priority Overlays
Rather than completely overhauling existing land-use and zoning types throughout the county, one concept favored by Hartmann is use of overlays that cover only the targeted areas.
“Perhaps we might have three, four or five of these overlays that we identify immediately,” she theorized, “and then we would invite people who want to propose projects within those area to come and talk to us. I think there is tremendous interest throughout the county for these.”
— Noozhawk outdoor writer Ray Ford can be reached at rford@noozhawk.com. Click here for his website, SBoutdoors.com. Follow him on Twitter: @riveray. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.