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I. V. Camino Corto Open Space Preserved from Golf Course
The Isla Vista Recreation and Park District (IVRPD) board unanimously approved $18,000 for construction of a Frisbee Golf Course in the Camino Corto Open Space and was a month away from completing the project with no public notice.
The Open Space is home to a plethora of birds and animals that thrive in this wetland which includes over nine identified vernal pools and is connected to the adjoining Devereux slough by a riparian swale. Eleven years ago a previous board also approved installation in the open space. Isla Vistans and the environmental community joined at that time to stop this intrusion and the board ended their plan for nine holes in the wetland.
Now, over a decade later, IVRPD, due to apparent lack of institutional memory, started pouring concrete in the wetland . Only this time without any public notification or input whatsoever. Those living next to the open space just learned of the golf course on March 17, Thursday, when tractors and concrete appeared. All 9 of the 4x10 ft. structures were already partially installed. Instead of the usual minimal trimming of the undergrowth in the lengthy riparian swale, most of the undergrowth is now gone. The swale is almost completely denuded with a devastating effect on wildlife. The Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council was notified, and Eddie Harris responded to walk the swale and the preserve, observe the damage and give input. The Council provided support for the neighborhood effort to undo the damage.
When the open space was originally created, under the leadership of then Third District Supervisor Bill Wallace, Santa Barbara County preserved the Camino Corto Open Space and later donated it to IVRPD along with a master plan to protect foxes, raccoons, opossums, hawks, kites, owls, egrets, and numerous other animals along with amphibians, reptiles, riparian vegetation, and vernal pools. A golf course was not part of the county’s Camino Corto master plan, is not permitted under the development plan, and was not covered in the environmental review of this sensitive wetland.
In a break from the county’s environmentally conscious management of the wetland, the IVRPD unilaterally decided to overlook the intensification of use that would occur when hundreds of Frisbee throwers chase their errant discs through the wetland.
Biologist Dave Hubbard is an expert on California wetlands who resides in Isla Vista and consulted with IVRPD in the restoration and maintenance of numerous vernal pools in the Camino Corto Open Space. Hubbard was stunned at the board’s decision to build a Golf Course in the wetland: “I cannot fathom the board’s decision. I don’t see any point in restoring a wetland on property that isn’t permanently preserved. I wouldn’t have done it.
What happened to the agreement from 1998?” Hubbard helped obtain grant money to sustain the wetland that is now “all for naught.” An aerial layout of the course shows a vernal pool/water hazard in the immediate center of the course.
As Isla Vista residents and contributors to the well-endowed IVRPD, the Camino Corto neighborhood was dismayed at the board’s decision to use their tax dollars to build a golf course in the wetland. The board vacated their previous position and approved this project, without any prior environmental review and without informing the community.
For the second time IVRPD completely ignored wetlands regulations required under the California Coastal Act and under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act not to mention Santa Barbara County’s own regulations. IVRPD failed to fulfill their obligation as stewards of the Camino Corto Open Space by not implementing the county’s master plan and not adhering to the conditions of their deed.
So once again these neighbors banded together to put a stop to the partially built golf course. They called upon 3rd Dist. Supervisor Doreen Farr, her assistant Esther Aguilera, County of S.B. Dept of Planning and Development, Dept of Fish and Game, and among many others, Former 3rd District Supervisor Bill Wallace, who in his honor this property is dedicated. These neighbors also went before the IVRPD Board on March 30, 2011 to protest this golf course in the wetland, and protest the IVRPD’S lack of process and procedure.
On Friday, March 29, 2011 IVRPD General Manager Jeff Lindgren received a letter from Dianne Black, Director of Development Services at County Planning and Development requesting that installation of the golf course cease, removal of the course and restoration of all disturbed areas back to natural conditions. GM Jeff Lindgren informed all involved that the golf course will be removed and that this will be in the IVRPD records, hopefully to prevent this same mistake in the future.
California’s wetlands are disappearing at a rate of over 117,000 acres a year. Turning what little remains of these sensitive habitats into a recreational facility would be a reckless and ill-informed decision. There are those who try to argue that Disc, Frisbee Golf is passive and belongs in the wet lands. It is our communities that need to remain watchful of these nonrenewable resources and proactively protect them from their misuse.
Neighbors include Peter Neushul, Melissa Hedges, Karen Dorfman, Spencer Conway, Florence Klein, Joe Burke, and Dave Hubbard ( to name a few). |
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