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Yahoo!On 12/10, a standing-room-only crowd gathered for three hours in the Santa Barbara County Administration Building to voice their concerns about plans to put large-scale luxury homes on the pristine Gaviota Coast. Part of the Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) process, the hearing saw several dozen speakers pick apart the recently released 1,400-page RDEIR document for once again falling short in its analysis of the impacts associated with Orange County developer Matt Osgood’s plan to build as many as 72 homes on some 3,200 acres encompassing the historical Naples site and adjacent Dos Pueblos Ranch.
While the document identifies several significant, unmitigatable impacts resulting from the project, public comments identified still more areas of concern; such as toxic metals in the soil, water availability issues, the inadequate exploration of Chumash archeological sites, and the lack of high-tide public access points. The original DEIR was sent back for more work after being deemed inadequate last year — an occurrence that both Naples Coalition lawyer Marc Chytilo and Environmental Defense Center counsel Nathan Alley feel is likely to repeat itself given the areas still left untouched by the new document. County staff announced an extension of the public comment period through 1/23/08.
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This project has more problems than a high school algebra text! The only thing it has going for it is greed and a compliant and barely competent planning department. Oh yes, one more thing; Brooks Firestone! I urge all readers who care about our county and the Gaviota Coast to contact the Board of Supervisors, whatever district you reside in, and tell them to please do everything within their power to reduce the size of this project and to move it off the coast north of Hwy 101. Also tell them you want to see a robust Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program implemented.
Noletaman (anonymous profile)
December 13, 2007 at 2:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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