SHIRLEY KIMBERLIN Everything I list turns to SOLD! 805-886-0228 skimberlin@aol.com
This week’s listings on the back page
SkateGarden forum brings all sides to discussion
Come and get it!
By LEA Boyd
Tempers flared and threatened to ignite at the Nov. 20 SkateGarden Forum, but members of the nonprofit Carpinteria Skate Foundation kept their calm and carefully steered the sensitive conversation toward a civil discussion of the skatepark and community garden proposed for the city’s 5th Street park property. Not everyone left the forum at the Carpinteria Woman’s Club that evening convinced that the “SkateGarden” would be the best use of the city’s 5th Street park property. Nonetheless, the presentation by professional skatepark designer Spohn Ranch, a company responsible for the construction of nearly 1,000 skateparks internationally, led to new dialogue between those opposed to the skatepark on the property adjacent to the Amtrak station and those committed to bringing the project about. The proposal is yet to be officially considered by the city, which purchased the .66-acre Union Pacific railroad property in 2012 for $355,000. Skate Foundation members had combed satellite maps of Carpinteria in search of an appropriate property to construct a park for skateboarders, and they encouraged the city to purchase the 5th Street lot for that purpose. City enthusiasm for a skatepark appeared to exist until last spring when residents of the surrounding neighborhoods began
SKATE GARDEN continued on page 19
BoyD
The holiday spirit caught a hold of the Carpinteria Family School on nov. 22 when its annual Harvest Festival brought a morning of learning disguised as fun. Students completed art projects, made music, learned math from a banjo-playing scarecrow, made tea from schoolgrown herbs, churned butter and chopped hundreds of veggies into the makings of a hearty soup. The morning activities culminated in a lunch on the lawn. Pictured above scooping salad at left is Katy olivas, while from front to back, Kristina Calkins, Evelyn Calkins, Kimberly Berg, Layla Berg, Ashlyn Boyd, Tess Lewis, Elise Van Paris, Kainoa Glasgow, Sky Souza and Lourdes Castillo eagerly await the stone soup meal they are about to be served.
Silver Sands residents can rest easy City relinquishes easements in park By Erin LEnnon
The Carpinteria City Council ended nearly two decades of negotiations, planning and waiting on Nov. 25 by approving an agreement between the City of Carpinteria and Silver Sands Mobile Home Park. Park residents got a sense of relief, and the city got more land. In a 4-0 vote, a 19,000-square-foot portion of Third Street, the boundary between the mobile home park and the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park, became part of the city park, and the city relinquished its right to use 41,000 square feet of land within the residential neighborhood. The journey began in 1997 when Silver Sands residents banded together to purchase their mobile home park at
349 Ash Ave. from the existing owners. Negotiations with the city began that same year. Carpinteria wanted to adjust the mobile home park’s boundaries to accommodate Salt Marsh Nature Park improvements, and park residents wanted two obsolete city easements within the 80-space, circa-1950s park erased. These easements could have been used to extend Dorrance Way and Cypress Avenue into Silver Sands, which would have wiped out 20 homes. It wasn’t until the 1990s that anybody realized that the residential park was situated atop land that the city had a right to develop. As part of their 1990s negotiations,
park residents also agreed to improve their public parking area that fronts Ash Avenue in exchange for the city abandoning the easements. But when Carpinteria began preparing the Beach Area Specific Plan in 1999, which consisted of road improvements in the city’s beach area, the Ash Avenue upgrades dropped down the to-do list. Instead, Silver Sands spent $1.2 million on an infrastructure project that replaced electricity, gas, water, cable and telephone within the park and connected Silver Sands’ drainage system to the city’s sewers, according to resident David Fiener. All of those upgrades depleted funds for a long time. Without enough in their reserves for the Ash Av-
enue upgrades and with the city caught up in improvements to the beach area, the property transactions sat in wait for another 14 years. Now, Silver Sands is ready to pay Carpinteria $185,000 as part of the full agreement that the city council approved on Monday night. These funds are to be used for improvements to the park’s Ash Avenue frontage. The city-managed project is priced at $515,000, with the city putting up the additional $330,000. The council’s unanimous role call vote created a wave of applause. “Even at the start, this was a great effort between Silver Sands owners and the city,” said Mayor Brad Stein, “and this couldn’t have come out better.”
new recycling regs