Coastal panel forces county to rethink I.V. parking plan

4/14/05

By MORGAN GREEN
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Firestone sees 'hard road ahead' in creating state-accepted plan

The California Coastal Commission all but rejected controversial parking restrictions for car-choked Isla Vista on Wednesday, forcing county officials to rethink a plan that was three years in the making.

The plan would violate the Coastal Act by reducing parking for beach-goers, commission members said. But they kept it alive, continuing indefinitely an appeal brought by the Surfrider Foundation and others.

The commission's action gives the county a chance to come up with an alternative to the paid-parking plan, which aims to stop the use of Isla Vista as a free parking lot by UCSB students and commuting employees -- estimated from several hundred to more than a thousand.

County officials do not want to drop the issue because solving Isla Vista's parking crunch is a key element of the county's Isla Vista Master Plan, a long-range blueprint to convert the blighted neighborhood of 20,000 into a modern community with urban-style amenities.

The continuance was better than an outright rejection, said Allen Seltzer, chief assistant county counsel. "We literally will go back to the drawing board."

But others say it will be difficult. "I see a very hard road ahead," said Brooks Firestone, 3rd District county supervisor. "There's a need to discourage the use of the town as a free parking place (for UCSB students and staff), but right now, I don't know how to do that."

Scott McGolpin, deputy director of public works, said, "We will meet with the stakeholders, local groups, and talk with them and put a strategy together to see whether we can meet the requirements of the commission."

The county plan, approved by the county Board of Supervisors, would limit curbside parking to residents who buy $95-to-$150 annual permits and to business customers in metered spaces. Of Isla Vista's 3,000 or so on-street parking spots, the county plan would set aside 106 free beach access spaces.

A commission staff report said the plan is unacceptable because the residents-only permit system would put the rest of the neighborhood's spaces off limits to beach-goers. Commission member Sara Wan, who joined in the appeal, said the free beach access spaces would surely be taken by students "and that would really be creating a nightmare for members of the public."

Surfrider Foundation counsel Sabarina Venskus said, "the county needs to figure the problem out with UCSB, not put it on the backs of coastal access users."

Commission chair Meg Caldwell, who also joined in the appeal, agreed that UCSB is largely behind Isla Vista's problem and should help solve it.

"UCSB should be at the center of a solution," Ms. Caldwell said.

"Raising (campus) parking rates was exactly the wrong direction to go. I hope they can be in a central and productive position" in devising a new Isla Vista plan.

Tye Simpson, UCSB director of campus planning, said the university "would be happy to work . . . for a comprehensive integrated program for all the parties."

But, "it would be difficult to provide free parking for the community and surfers and residents. You can't reasonably expect free stuff. There is a cost to provide services."

The commission's decision sidestepped its staff recommendation to approve a parking plan to limit only overnight parking for nonresidents. That way, the staff reasoned, parking for people who want to go to the beach would not be hindered. Parking in Isla Vista would be freed up because those UCSB students who live on campus, such as the 800 students in the recently built Manzanita residence complex, could no longer park their cars in Isla Vista.

County officials flatly rejected that option. Mr. McGolpin dubbed it "the infeasible plan," adding that "it has absolutely no benefit to the community" and "would continue the parking mess that we currently have."

The Coastal Commission has a record of being tough when it comes to beach access. It rejected parking restrictions in Los Angeles in 1990 and in Venice in 1997 on grounds that the plans would significantly reduce public beach parking. Programs were approved for Hermosa Beach, Capitola, Santa Cruz and Santa Monica, but only after conditions were added.

Opponents included some UCSB students who complained that the plan would add another expense to the cost of college at a time of rising tuition and other fees.

The county plan is supported by numerous local professional and business organizations, including the Isla Vista Property Owners Association, the Isla Vista Parks and Recreation District and the County Sheriff's office.

e-mail: mgreen@newspress.com