A red-tailed hawk flies over the San Marcos Foothills Preserve on Thursday.
A man is seen completing his morning hike on a trail that winds along the Santa Barbara foothills with panoramic views of the ocean.
“In the community, especially during COVID, people would come up here for relief, for space, and to take a deep breath,” said Nancy Tubiolo, an organizer with Save San Marcos Foothills. “It was just a place of sanity and beauty, and it will always be this way.”
Save San Marcos Foothills has reached its $18.6 million milestone to purchase the 101-acre site west of Highway 154 and north of Foothill Road from the developer, The Chadmar Group. The homebuilding and development company had approval to build new homes in a 20-unit project on the preserve.
Officials closed escrow on the property this week, and the site is now permanently preserved as open space accessible to the public.
“Wow,” said Ken Owen, executive director of Channel Islands Restoration. “This feels great.”
Campaign organizers aimed to permanently protect and preserve the area as well as to add it to the 200-acre San Marcos Foothills Preserve, a Santa Barbara County-owned parcel that’s managed by the county’s Parks Division.
Habitat restoration on the preserve is directed by the local conservation nonprofit Channel Islands Restoration, according to Save San Marcos Foothills.
Channel Islands Restoration will take care of the west mesa area. The organization and other conservation groups had the goal of protecting the space and keeping it maintained as public open space.
Standing near the preserve entrance on Via Gaitero Road, more than 40 supporters celebrated the victory of the Foothills Forever campaign on Thursday morning. The enthusiastic crowd broke out in cheers, claps and shouts of “We did it!”
The gathering included speeches, and Ernestine Ygnacio De Soto provided a Chumash blessing.
“I’m proud and happy to be here with all of you, and the land and the animals and the trees and the birds and all the insects, especially my honeybees,” she said.
The area is considered sacred to the Chumash tribe, and Foothills Forever campaign organizers say they will include members of the Chumash community in the stewardship, planning and use of the land.
Chuck Lande, president and CEO of The Chadmar Group, attended Thursday’s celebratory gathering.
In a statement, Lande told Noozhawk that “like the entire community, we are impressed by this effort to raise the funds, and we look forward to the expansion of the preserve.”
He continued: “Santa Barbara is a special and generous community, including the landowner and family who as everyone knows had already donated nearly 90% of the land decades ago. Now, we all stand side by side with every person who gave $1 to $1 million. This has always been about doing what is fair and right.”
Lande said that when approached about selling the remaining land in 2019, “we said repeatedly that we were open to sell. We shared a price and waited for an offer.”
“Without an offer matching the land value (as of 2019), we moved the project forward until eventually those looking to buy the land presented a price we could agree to,” he added. “And even though home prices have risen considerably, to where the final price we agreed to is likely 25% or more below value, we honored the land value we gave years ago.
“We are happy to be part of the legacy and proud to be, with this reduced price, a large donor to the effort. This story started decades ago with the donation of nearly 90% of the land that created the preserve and parks. Clearly the ownership has been dedicated to being wise and good stewards of the land.”
The community stepped up and stayed focused on saving the area, said Marc Chytilo, an attorney for the campaign.
“To me, saving big open space parcels is a manifestation of Santa Barbara’s intention, the character and integrity of our community,” Chytilo said. “We do this because we care about it.”
Community members — including Tubiolo, along with Samantha Eddy, Dani Lynch and Julia Laraway — helped lead Save San Marcos Foothills.
“We have created the future we dreamed of,” Laraway said.
In February, demonstrators stood at the gate to The Chadmar Group’s housing development in the San Marcos Foothills to stop construction crews from accessing the site.
The grassroots community organization Save San Marcos Foothills set the goal of raising money to purchase the land above Santa Barbara after reaching an agreement with the developer.
The purchase of the land was made possible with the help of more than 5,500 donors, including a longtime local businesswoman who gave a $5 million grant (as an anonymous donor) through her foundation to the fundraising campaign to save the San Marcos Foothills Preserve from development.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to contribute $2 million as part of the budget.
“This is an incredibly special day,” Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart said. “The stars have aligned. … There are a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces today because we as a community have accomplished something extraordinary.”
The Second District that Hart represents includes the nature preserve.
“Not only will we enjoy this property for our lifetimes, but there are children who weren’t born yet who are going to enjoy this property for their lifetimes, and their grandchildren,” Hart said.
Montecito Bank & Trust offered a loan during “a critical moment, early on, we needed to meet a deadline, and they were there with a loan to bridge that timing,” Hart said.
The Foothills Forever fund is a fiscal sponsorship fund of the Santa Barbara Foundation, according to organizers.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
