I am one of the neighbors whose back yard is next to the Kenwood Village property. The City Council is voting to rezone the property from single family housing and agricultural land to high density housing. This reclassification will currently allow the possibility for the owner, Ken Alker, to build up to 190 housing units. The owner is trying to get the number of housing units increased to at least 284. I would like to correct the owner’s misstatements in his previous letter.
Regarding the weeds on the property, the Fire Department, to the best of my knowledge, generally requires a perimeter of a vacant lot to be mowed 20 feet around the neighboring houses. They generally do not require the middle of the field to be mowed. Ever since he bought the property over a decade and a half ago, the owner has received a violation in 2019 for not mowing the perimeter, according to the Fire Marshal. Further, this very year, the Fire Department also sent me an email regarding a complaint from another unknown neighbor stating, “[I]n spring 2023 upon contacting the owner after a concerned neighbor contacted me, he explained that he (the owner) was waiting for tractor parts to complete the requested hazard abatement.” Even Mr. Alker admits “they (the Fire Department) have called me to remind me to mow and that every time they have called I have cleared the field.”
There have also been two “brush” fires on the property since he purchased it. The 2013 fire was started by a marijuana cigarette. The brush/annual grasses caused it to expand to 0.75 acres and to burn the bottom of a telephone pole. I was evacuated from my home. The picture in the newspaper showed the weeds to be taller than the firefighters. Deputy Fire Marshal Tan stated, “I do not have record of a perimeter clearing in 2013.” Also, there is no indication the fire came “from smoking from a sidewalk,” as the property owner claims.
On May 1, 2016, there was a second, smaller fire; 15 feet by 20 feet. The Fire Department report states the fire was a “[b]rush or brush and grass mixture fire.” The report states the Fire Cause was “undetermined.” Even if there was equipment on the property at the time, that is not listed as a cause of the fire, as the owner has claimed. Regardless, the brush/grass caused the fire to burn until the Fire Department arrived.
The property owner has almost constantly allowed the weeds on at least the middle part of the property to grow taller than my 5-foot 7 1/4-inch fence, and there are times, some listed above, when he will not mow the perimeter next to the neighboring houses in a timely manner and/or without being asked. On very few occasions, he has mowed the entire property. Today, he allows the weeds in the middle of the field to grow so tall I cannot see the roof top of the apartments on the other side of the Kenwood Village lot, as has been the case almost consistently since he purchased the property. If he were truly a conscientious neighbor, he’d mow where the weeds are so high, which is currently in the middle.
I have a more comprehensive statement with additional issues and complete documentation posted on the City of Goleta’s website, including the fact that my neighbor found monarch butterflies on the property. Also, the City Council took away El Encanto’s money for a fire house, so the nearest one is across the 101 freeway. Firefighters would have to drive through very heavy traffic to get to the property. This could be dangerous if the owner is allowed to build 284 housing units and decides he wants to place 214 seniors with possible “mobility” issues on the property, along with an additional senior daycare and 70 other houses. I was told that the intersection of Glen Annie and US 101 had a D rating, which was before all the proposed added housing, including 1,500 or so housing units at the Glen Annie Golf Course which is pending at the county.
Please come to the final hearing of the City Council’s Housing Development Plan, including a rezoning list, on December 5, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. at the Goleta City Hall. This is our last chance to have the City Council vote the way the majority of the people in Goleta want.