UCSB New Housing Development Plan for Ellwood- Devereux

UCSB Long-Range Development Plan Amendment initially included construction of  217-unit faculty housing project on Phelps Road near Ocean Meadows Golf Course and 151-unit student housing project on Storke Road on lands bordering ecologically sensitive creeks and wetlands and near the Devereux Slough in Goleta.  It has since been modified to 323 untis on 11 acres.

What: Coastal Commission hearing re: UCSB’s North Campus Project
When: Friday, November 17, 2006, 9:00 a.m.
Where: Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach
 21500 Pacific Coast Highway
 Huntington Beach, CA  92648

http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/hchoices-images/pdfs/fh-no-campus-project.pdf

Entire UCSB Report
CCC staff Report

EDC represents Save Ellwood Shores and the Santa Barbara Audubon Society in this matter.  Collectively, they recommend support for the project conditioned on the University’s agreement to grant a conservation easement over the South Parcel and to accept the Commission staff recommendations for enhanced protection of wetlands, creeks, and environmentally sensitive areas.  They also recommend some additional measures to ensure long-term protection of the Devereux ecosystem, as set forth below.  

Present Proposal

• The plan has been reduced to from 513 units to 323 units in order to avoid wetlands, grasslands and other sensitive habitats on the property.  The development footprint has been reduced from 23 acres to 11 acres.
  • While the plan includes reduced wetland buffers, the University has agreed to enhance the wetlands on-site by increasing connectivity between wetlands, installing bioswales to filter pollutants, and by designated the University’s Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration to manage and restore the wetlands.
• UCSB will also restore an additional 11 acres of wetlands, native grasslands and other
  rare habitats on the North Parcel, South Parcel, and along the east fork of Devereux
  Creek.
• The South Parcel will be designated as Open Space.
• UCSB has also agreed to enhance and restore Phelps Creek, and replace the existing
  concrete crossing over Devereux Creek with a new bridge that will improve water quality
  and flow.
• UCSB will fund a Steward to oversee restoration projects on the South Parcel, and a
  Snowy Plover Coordinator to manage the Coal Oil Point Reserve’s Snowy Plover docents.
• UCSB will relocate trails to provide public access that also protects sensitive coastal
  resources.

Requests for the Commission

We ask for the following additional project enhancements:

• The Commission staff recommends that UCSB dedicate, or offer to dedicate, a conservation easement to ensure protection of the South Parcel in perpetuity.  Support this condition, but ask the Commission to require actual dedication of the easement prior to development on the North Parcel.  Also ask the Commission to add the 17-acre Ellwood Marine Terminal site to the easement or COPR when the Terminal lease expires in 2016, and provide for enforcement of the easement by third parties;
  
• Require restoration of the South Parcel concurrent with development of the North Parcel;
• Require soft bank stabilization measures for Phelps Creek, such as log or vegetated bank protection, instead of boulders; 
• Require that all sediment basins avoid existing ESHAs and wetlands, and provide buffers to protect the habitat and water quality values of these areas;
• Prohibit any widening of the trails along Venoco Road and the northern boundary of the
  South Parcel that would impact adjacent wetlands, willow woodlands, and other ESHA;
• Prohibit new public parking at Coal Oil Point Reserves to protect snowy plovers and least terns. 
•  Include restoration of the east tributary of Devereux Creek in the Open Space and Habitat
  Management Plan.

For more information, contact EDC at www.edcnet.org or (805) 963-1622.The plan can be obtained online

NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVISTS

Members of the immediate neighborhoods surrounding these proposed developments (UV1,UV2, Cannon Green Condos, Pacific Oaks Condos, Marymount Homeowners, etc) have been very vocal on this issue as well. Contact Stephen.R.Sorich@usa.dupont.com for their point of view.

TAKE ACTION

1) SEND IN A COMMENT LETTER

Members of the public are encouraged to submit comments to CCC regarding ways to better protect the environment, including nearby wetlands and creeks. SEND A FAX IN TODAY (note hearing date) addressed to:

California Coastal Commissioners
Attention: Melissa Hetrick
89 S. California Street, Suite 200
Ventura, CA 93001
Fax: (805)641-1732

Re:  UCSB Long Range Development Plan Amendment, Notice of Impending Development, and Coastal Development Permit [F3a, F3b, F4a]

Dear Chairwoman Caldwell and Commissioners:

2) ATTEND THE HEARING

FREE ride for the Nov 17th meeting in Huntington Beach.  contact Stephen R Sorich <Stephen.R.Sorich@usa.dupont.com>