Thursday, December 2, 2021 9
Coastal View News • Tel: (805) 684-4428
A championship community
Any championship effort takes the contributions of so many people and the support of even more to be successful. This fall is a perfect example of community and collaboration, as our two Carpinteria high schools oined e orts to help Carpinteria High’s boys water polo and Cate’s football team find success, with both teams capturing their program’s first ever championship. The Warriors water polo team began their o season with early summer mornings in Cate’s pool. It was a wonderful thing to see so many student-athletes working so hard to better themselves and come together to work towards a dream. Who knew, just a few months later, these boys would have accomplished something no Carpinteria water polo team before them had ever done and given our town something so special to cheer for in the process. For the Cate football team, it took the e orts of athletic director at Cooney, as well as the willingness of Carpinteria High School soccer coaches Leo Quintero, Lucy Carlton and Charles Bryant to yield some field time an e traordinary act of kindness for teams starting their own seasons. In addition, the CHS Booster Club and many others helped create community events during the playo s at Memorial Stadium and helped the Rams win their first ever C football title, led by Ben Soto, a proud Warrior alumnus. Children need reasons to dream, support to chase those dreams, and skilled adults to help guide them on a joyous path to success. As the parent of an 8-year-old Carpinteria Athletic Club Triton, I can attest to the next generation already being here, searching for opportunities to have fun and work towards new and exciting achievements while creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Wade Ransom, director of athletics, Cate School Carpinteria
City Council punts on the Sur iner nn si e
At Monday night’s city council meeting, the Carpinteria City Council had the opportunity to speak for the majority of people requesting a reduction in the size of the proposed Surfliner nn. ack in November 2020, during the conceptual review of proposed plans, eight out of 14 comments from three city departments all voiced their concerns that the proposed plans were too big and had too many rooms for that site on arking ot 3. On Monday, the council reviewed the revised plans, which only reduced the number of rooms from 0 to 3 2. , the overall square footage by 614 square feet 3. and the length of the building by 11 feet .2 . This was not the magnitude of reduction discussed back in 2020. There were also requests for the developers to look at a hotel with 30 to 3 rooms, which Mayor Wade Nomura again voiced Monday night in his comments. A motion was put forth by Councilmember Roy Lee and seconded by Councilmember Gregg A. Carty, for the City Council to approve the modestly reduced sized plans. Opposed were Councilmember Natalia Alarcon and Vice Mayor Al Clark. Councilmember Alarcon asked Councilmember Lee to amend his resolution to include a limitation on the size, and Councilmember Lee declined. This left the deciding swing vote to Mayor Nomura. The mayor had the opportunity to vote down Councilmember’s Lee motion with Alarcon and Clark. Then Councilmember Alarcon could have put up a new motion to approve the developer’s revised plans with some limits on overall size. The hotel size may still be reduced
CVN
LETTERS
“What is relevant is whether the majority of Carpinteria residents are in favor of or against the hotel being built by the railroad tracks. This question could be answered in November 2022, if the ballot measure is voted on. Until then, approval of this project must wait.
––Annie Sly
while it goes through the standard development review process. But what is telling is this was another opportunity missed by the City Council to listen to city residents and their own department members!
Alan and Carol Koch Carpinteria
Do not move forward with the Sur iner
I am Debbie Murphy, broker and owner of Murphy King Real Estate. One day went to arking ot 3 and simply stood there and took in the view: the mountains, the buildings, the community garden, the tracks, the state park and the sky. In taking in the view, I realized that all of that would be gone if the hotel was built. That piece of sky would be gone forever to Carpinteria. For the rest of all of our lifetimes, that particular piece of Carpinteria would never be the same. So, I volunteered to collect signatures for the petition to save ublic arking ot 3. was a little surprised at how eager Carpinterians were to seek me out and sign the petition. They did not want the hotel. In the process I came to think about how, when the City of Carpinteria was formed, we were in a building mode. We needed housing and stores and hotels and it made sense to give those powers to our elected o cials to make decisions on our behalf. Now, I feel it is more important to preserve the wonderful community that we have created. More is not necessarily better. I appreciate all the work that you have put into consideration of this project, yet I ask you to listen to the people of Carpinteria and not proceed with the proposed development.
Debbie Murphy Carpinteria
Proposed changes are a joke
At the risk of being redundant, kudos to Al Clark for his “no” vote at the city council meeting on Monday. Kudos to Natalia Alarcon as well. Thank you both for your votes regarding the Surfliner nn. This letter will address some of the issues raised at Monday’s meeting. A comment was made on how many years the developer has been working on this project. That point is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether the majority of Carpinteria residents are in favor of or against the hotel being built by the railroad tracks. This question could be answered in November 2022, if the ballot measure is voted on. Until then, approval of this project must wait. erhaps 600,000 a year would be added to the city’s co ers. t would be enlightening to know how this number was calculated, and what occupancy rate was estimated to come up with this number. Transparency on this would be helpful.
The height, setback and cafe location are insignificant changes. The si e of the hotel has been an issue from the very beginning and Monday’s proposed changes are meaningless. The hotel has rooms on the first and second floor, and a rooftop. I call the rooftop the third floor. Calling it the rooftop rather than the third floor does not change the facts. Most if not all of us agree that Carpinteria is the last great beach town, and no one wants us to be Orange County. This development will set an undesirable precedent. Calling this hotel a landmark is ludicrous. It is just a hotel.
Annie Sly Carpinteria
Sur iner will be a train wreck
Each week in the Coastal View News readers see a slate of destructive behaviors vividly displayed in the “Commander’s ecap” column. s this any di erent with the Surfliner nn debates n each go around, we see the same city o cials vividly addicted to their economic tourism passion habit, causing mayhem among a citizenry who never asked for and who have explicitly indicated they don’t want the inn. Carpinteria is not and should not be a “ as egas.” The Surfliner nn promises a train wreck for the town.
Lorenz Schaller Ojai
Vaccines work
Many vaccine “naysayers” are no longer with us. I grew up with vaccines. My father was the first epidemiologist from the niversity of Iowa hospital in Iowa City, Iowa. Since then, vaccines have eliminated or greatly reduced epidemics for chicken pox, smallpox, diphtheria, measles, mumps, polio, whooping cough, shingles and more. Get vaccinated and stay with us and protect others against Covid-1 .
Danel Trevor Carpinteria
o on Cresco abs’ new project
Five years into the cannabis takeover of Carpinteria, I am laser focused on the environmental degradation caused by the pot operations nearby. That’s why ’ve started Save the rroyo aredon Watershed, an environmental protection and advocacy group, working alongside Concerned Carpinterians, the Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council and others. I am worried about what is happening to federally endangered steelhead trout and tidewater gobi, plus other plants and
animals in rroyo aredon Creek. To try to understand these problems, I read “A eview of the ects of Cannabis Cultivation on Fish and Wildlife Resources” by Ange Baker, Senior Resource Scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Baker states that pot operations degrade the habitat for plants and animals through overactive water resource use, pesticides, rodenticides, water diversions, site development and direct ingestion of the plant itself, among many other issues. According to the report, cannabis “…cultivation in sensitive ecosystems means that marijuana cultivation can have environmental impacts that are disproportionately large given the area under production.” Cresco Labs is a perfect example of this “disproportionately large impact.” Here, the Michigan-based corporation plans a new, two-story o ce building and cannabis processing warehouse, right on the banks of rroyo aredon Creek. They will have employees parking and working right next to the creek everyday 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This new corporate headquarters requires the installation of two new septic tanks, just outside an environmentally sensitive habitat, plus two large, new flood control ditches, with massive cut and fill of earth and more. How could we stop Cresco and Big Cannabis’ slow-motion environmental disasters in rroyo aredon atershed I urge the Board of Supervisors to reject Cresco Labs’ project at its Dec. 7 meeting. lease support our e orts and choose the environment over cannabis cash.
Maureen Claffey Carpinteria
No on Rincon Trail
ver a decade ago, Carpinteria arks and Recreation Department proposed a bike path – the incon Trail ro ect – that was supposed to be good for bikes, paragliding and hang-gliding. The current plan, presented by director Matt Roberts, removes massive portions of the blu . This will change the natural airflow, forever ending paragliding and hang-gliding in Carpinteria. Thousands have protested by signing petitions, writing letters, attending city meetings, meeting with Mr. Roberts, and more. The department ignored it all. aragliding and hang-gliding has occurred almost daily at this thriving, growing community for over 40 years at the blu s. The ederal viation dministration has stated that there is nothing illegal about paragliding or hang-gliding at this location. The arks and ecreation Department has also been made aware by the bicycle community that dumping bikes or e-bikes going 30 mph into the incon each parking lot is irresponsible the arks and ecreation Department said that this is the county’s problem, not theirs – a sad and fatal stance for biker safety. The department is rushing this plan, to establish the legacy that they completed a portion of the California Coastal Trail. The ironic fact is, the department’s legacy will not be that they completed 2,800 feet of bike path, but that they spent millions in taxpayer dollars to obliterate a beautiful community. We advocate for a progressive arks and ecreation Department, similar to UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara city, which supports diverse communities rather than destroys them. Why not improve the site for paragliding and hang-gliding and build a bike path at the same time lease voice your support for all communities, as yours might be next on the arks and ecreation Department’s chopping block.
Aaron LaPlante Carpinteria