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Swimming Rams
Local landlord talks Carpinteria opportunities By Peter Dugré
At the city’s January meeting to plan its priorities for the coming year, much of what was on planners’ plates revolved around one person, Victor Schaff. The investor, landlord and proprietor of S&S Seeds had his nose in so much of Carpinteria’s ongoing land transfers and development ideas that Mayor Brad Stein CoUrTeSy PHoTo quipped, “He’s got to take off the Monopoly Victor Schaff is set to Man’s hat. It’s some- close escrow on the body else’s turn.” Salvation Army property However coincidental in the coming weeks. it might be that Schaff was in the vortex of the discussion, it’s apparent his eyes are zeroed in on some of Carpinteria’s biggest commercial transactions and opportunities. “I’m always looking for an opportunity. I live here, and I like the city,” explained Schaff in a recent conversation, while downplaying the flurry of recent moves. Schaff’s more recent interests center around an irony. He owns S&S Seeds, a company that sells seeds to public agencies and developers for big projects, but the property where the company sits—on Carpinteria Avenue adjacent to Viola Fields (the old 7Up building)—does not belong to Schaff. The local land baron owns Venoco’s offices; he bought them last year. He owns the six buildings at Carpinteria Business Park that are 100 percent occupied by lynda.com. He leases space for his own business. The quest to find a home for S&S led him first to throw out an offer for the Tee Time property on Carpinteria Avenue. The property is held up in bankruptcy court in Nevada, and the City of Carpinteria has moved to acquire the land for $1.5 million, the amount owed in back taxes to Santa Barbara County. The city’s bid is a long shot, given that anyone can swoop in and make an offer. Schaff got cold feet and backed out of escrow. “I dropped it. I was looking into development potential and found there was too much risk and time involved to determine what could be built there,” he said. Considering the hurdles to development, the city may stand a decent chance at acquiring the property. “In my lifetime, I don’t think I’ll see anything developed there,” Schaff said. “I believe there would be big opposition from the public,” he said. “I’m not telling
SCHAFF continued on page 3
BILL SwINg
Cate School girls water polo hosted its first ever CIF playoff match on Feb. 18, and the seniorladen home squad willed itself to a 7-6 victory over Palm Springs High School. Cate’s Sophie Maes sank the game’s first goal, pictured, but the teams traded goals for three quarters. Senior four-year starter Caroline Montgomery nailed a penalty shot in the waning seconds of the third quarter to put the Rams up 7-6, and neither team scored in the fourth.
Studies recommend new Summerland fire station By LeA BoyD
Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District’s efforts to relocate the Summerland station, a project that has been waylaid for the last year, appears to be returning to its original course. A professional fire station location analysis and a citizen ad-hoc committee on fire station improvements came to at least one common conclusion this month: the district should purchase the property available on Lillie Avenue and Temple Street and construct a new fire station. The board, which is down one member due to the Jan. 29 passing of longtime Director Bob Duncan, received the results of the location study by consultant Diamante Partners as well as the recommendations of the citizens committee during its Feb. 18 meeting. Diamante used call response times throughout the district—most of which fall within the optimal fiveminute range—to determine that the existing stations are in ideal locations. “your forefathers did a really good job putting fire stations in good locations,” said consultant Jeff Meston. By factoring in the state of the current Summerland
station, which has been deemed seismically unsound and too small, among other deficiencies, and the dearth of alternative real estate suitable for a new station, Diamante concluded that moving forward with the proposed station, just a stone’s throw from the existing station, is the district’s best course of action. The Mosquito and Vector Management District, which owns the proposed property and operates out of the existing building there, has already agreed to the sale of the site to CSFPD. Additionally, the County of Santa Barbara has approved of the station design, and the Summerland community has embraced it. Until last year, the fire board was steadily moving toward a bond measure to ask voters to cover the costs of the $5 to $6 million Summerland station, as well as a more recently proposed $5 to $6 million Carpinteria station rebuild. Plans hit a snag when two new members were elected to the fire board in 2012 and began questioning several of the assumptions on which the dual station plans were founded. New board members Chris Johnson
FIRE STATION continued on page 3