Gaviota Coast Conservancy Statement on the Gaviota Coast Plan before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, November 8 

(Santa Barbara, CA) On Tuesday, November 8, the Board of Supervisors will consider approving the Gaviota Coast Plan (GCP) and its Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The GCP updates the County’s General Plan, Local Coastal Plan and zoning ordinance for the Gaviota Coast Plan Area, which spans the relatively undeveloped stretch of coastline between Goleta and Vandenberg Air Force Base. The GCP provides policy guidance and actions regarding natural and cultural resources stewardship, agriculture, parks, recreation and trails, land use, visual resources, and transportation, energy and infrastructure. 

The County began the process of developing this long-term land use plan for the Gaviota Coast in 2009 by establishing the Gaviota Coast Planning Advisory Committee (GavPAC) to develop a draft plan. The Gaviota Coast Conservancy was engaged throughout the process from the beginning, with two board members sitting on the GavPAC. Phil McKenna, Gaviota Coast Conservancy Board member and appointed member of the GavPAC, explained, “The Gaviota Coast Plan is the product of an exhaustive stakeholder process that included many different perspectives. It reflects a vision that preserves the rural character that is the essence of the Gaviota Coast, encourages sustainable agriculture while protecting biological resources and allows limited development while promoting enhanced recreational opportunities for the public.”

GavPAC’s draft plan was refined by County staff and the Planning Commission, and initiated for environmental review by the Board in 2013. After receiving public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), the Planning Commission reviewed the proposed final Gaviota Coast Plan, final EIR, and recommended that the Board approve the Plan.

The proposed Gaviota Coast Plan offers creative regulatory relief for small scale, sustainable agricultural endeavors while significantly protecting natural and cultural resources. The coastal and inland trail system is comprehensively envisioned, and Plan policies advance the creation of a world-class trail network along the Gaviota Coast, and up to and along the ridge-line of the Santa Ynez mountains. Visual resource protections are enhanced with the creation of a new Critical Viewshed Corridor, and important guidance is provided for residential development in the new Site Design Hierarchy.

Guner Tautrim, a 6th generation Gaviota Coast farmer, Gaviota Coast Conservancy board member and appointed member of the GavPAC, sought to promote policies and programs into the GCP that help small farmers hold onto their land and continue farming. “Farmers need to be creative to sustain agriculture on lands that are so desirable for development. I want to keep this land in productive agriculture for future generations and leave a legacy of a rural and rustic Gaviota Coast.” 

The Gaviota Coast Conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rural character and the environmental integrity of the Gaviota Coast for present and future generations.