County grants $45K to museum

Some of $1.4 million collected from oil companies to lessen impacts of offshore drilling was allocated Tuesday by Santa Barbara County supervisors to seven projects ranging from a tidepools exhibit at the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum to a possible public hiking trail in the mountains above Carpinteria.

Two-thirds of this year's Coastal Resource Enhancement Funds (CREF) were set aside for yet-to-be-determined coastal land acquisitions, including perhaps one or two sites on the Gaviota coast.

Among those being considered is 43 acres for sale at Gaviota Village where a store, restaurant and gas station once stood, and 44 acres along the south side of Highway 101 next to Gaviota State Park. Storage tanks still visible from the freeway on the latter site are a reminder of the marine terminal, for storing and shipping offshore oil, that operated there until late 2005.

After lengthy discussion, however, the North County majority of the Board of Supervisors voted as a bloc - and contrary to the desires of South Coast supervisors Janet Wolf and Salud Carbajal - not to earmark any money at this point for purchase of a one-acre parcel at the northeast corner of the Ellwood Mesa Preserve in Goleta.

County staff had recommended using up to $350,000 for a joint project with the city of Goleta to buy that acre from the Doty family, thereby ensuring permanent access across it - to and from the publicly owned coastal preserve - for people in areas around Phelps Road and Ellwood Beach Drive.

Supervisor Brooks Firestone, whose district includes the Doty property, adamantly complained there were still too many unanswered questions about its appraised value, the $475,000 offered by the city to buy it and what the county's fair share should be. Supervisor Joni Gray echoed his concerns about the proposed price being higher than the reported $400,000 appraised value.

“Up in the North County, we do business differently,” she remarked. “We pay what a piece of property is worth. I cannot possibly support this Doty acquisition unless I know what this piece of property is really worth.”

Wolf's attempt to compromise, by earmarking $250,000 for the Doty purchase with the proviso that answers will be sought in coming weeks to the supervisors' concerns, failed on a 2-3 vote.

Since that money went instead into an unallocated pot of funds, though, the supervisors may reconsider at a later date whether to designate some for that project.

Meanwhile, part or all of the $947,000 set aside for future land purchases also may eventually be used to purchase one of the Gaviota sites.

County Parks Department officials, along with the nonprofit Trust for Public Lands, have been given the go-ahead to contact representatives of a group of five oil companies that own the defunct Gaviota Terminal regarding the availability of that land. One obstacle to those discussions: Pollution that seeped into the ground from more than a century of oil operations there. It would have to be cleaned up, at an undetermined and perhaps sizable cost.

“We can't speculate on future use of that property” until that issue is resolved, Shell Oil Co. consultant Andrew Nelson warned the board. “This is an old oil site,” dating back to 1896, he said, “and there is some subsurface contamination from oil activities.”

The Gaviota Village site is for sale, probably in the range of $3 million to $4 million, a TPL spokeswoman told the supervisors in March. However, the Goleta Cemetery District is also looking at that land for possible use as an environmentally friendly “green cemetery,” according to Firestone.

County Public Works officials will meet with district representative and the landowners in coming months to examine the possibility of the county helping fund that purchase with CREF money.

The seven allocations approved Tuesday for non-acquisition projects this year included $45,000 for a planned tidepools exhibit at the Santa Maria Discovery Museum and $50,000 for a surf exhibit at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.

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

The other allocations were:

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

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

n $54,305 to create Walter Capps Park on county land in Isla Vista, and

n $40,000 to remove invasive Arundo plants from Lookout Park in Summerland.

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

May 16, 2007