In a lively discussion sometimes split along North County-South Coast lines, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors grappled Tuesday with how to divvy up $1.4 million from fees paid by oil companies to offset the impacts of offshore drilling.

Out of 17 requests for this year's Coastal Resource Enhancement Funds - from building museum exhibits to buying coastal land - eight were endorsed by the county staff, including $45,000 for a tide pool display planned at the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum.

Even though that's the only North County project among those being recommended, Supervisor Janet Wolf of Goleta questioned the rationale of funding the Santa Maria proposal while denying a $50,000 request for a surfer exhibit at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, in her district.

“I'm not trying to take away (from) the many wonderful programs the Discovery Museum has now,” Wolf remarked, but the staff recommended “no CREF funds going to the 2nd District. How do you justify that decision?”

The other four supervisors seemed sympathetic to her complaint and apparently want to find some way to give $50,000 to the Maritime Museum without reducing the Santa Maria allocation.

Historically, there hasn't been “a whole heck of a lot of CREF money” going to North County projects, because most of the communities there aren't on the coast, Supervisor Joe Centeno of Santa Maria said in urging the $45,000 for the Discovery Museum. County staff is also recommending an additional $75,000 annually be allocated to the Santa Maria facility in 2008 and 2009, for a proposed whale exhibit entitled “Belly of the Whale.”

After spending more than an hour voicing their opinions on several of the recommended projects, the supervisors postponed any votes on the CREF money until May 15. The board's final decisions on how to spend that money will be made during budget hearings in June.

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In January, the board unanimously agreed that 65 percent of the funds available this year would go for land acquisition, rather than 50 percent as in previous years.

Consequently, staff is recommending the lion's share, $667,000, be earmarked for purchasing some coastal property in Gaviota, potentially by the nonprofit Trust for Public Lands. It also recommended using $350,000 - to be lumped with $125,000 from the city of Goleta and other grants - to buy the one-acre Doty parcel bordering the southeast corner of the Ellwood Mesa Preserve in western Goleta.

However, those recommendations - especially using a big chunk of money for the Doty property - ran into strong resistance from some supervisors, particularly Joni Gray of Orcutt and Brooks Firestone of Los Olivos.

They liked the idea of reserving money for Gaviota land acquisition but opposed allocating it to any one project or entity at this point, including the Trust for Public Lands. “I just don't see putting a limitation on those funds based on the limited information we have today” about potential land purchases, Firestone said.

Gray suggested such a purchase could be accomplished just as well by the county Parks Department.

Carla Frisk, a TPL representative, told the board her organization is working to possibly buy 42 acres that was formerly the site of the Gaviota Marine Terminal used for many years by oil tankers. That land, with a price tag estimated at $3 million, is mostly south of Highway 101 and sandwiched between two sections of the Gaviota Beach State Park.

Also, the 43-acre Gaviota Village property across the freeway - where a gas station, restaurant and store once stood - is also for sale, for between $3 million and $4 million, she said.

However, the Goleta Cemetery District is also eyeing that land for possible use as an environmentally-friendly “green cemetery,” Firestone noted. “The Gaviota Coast could be preserved by a number of entities,” he said, “the Goleta Cemetery District being one.”

Among the other CREF projects recommended for funding this year are:

n $150,000 to help the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Center relocate to new facilities that it plans to begin building this year in the Goleta foothills.

n $92,000 worth of improvements at Rincon Park near the Ventura County line

n $54,305 for creating Walter Capps Park on county land in Isla Vista, a proposal scorned Tuesday by some supervisors.

n $40,000 for removing invasive Arundo plants - giant reeds - from Lookout Park in Summerland.

n $24,000 to open the historic Franklin Trail in the Carpinteria foothills to public use.

Chuck Schultz can be reached at 925-2691, Ext. 2241, or cschultz@santamariatimes.com.

April 4, 2007