Heading to the pros
Blind ambition
Ann Wai-Yee Kwong, who is blind, works with students who are also blind or visually impaired - A3
Our 165th Year
Former UCSB shooting guard Max Heidegger signed to pro basketball contract to play in Israel - A8
75¢
T U E S DAY, SE P T E M BE R 2 2 , 2 0 2 0
New sculpture in Elings Park
SB Council to discuss storm water requirements By MITCHELL WHITE
Urban storm water runoff is the single largest source of surface water pollution in Santa Barbara.
NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The Santa Barbara City Council will meet today and discuss submitting an application to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board seeking approval of proposed amendments to post-construction storm water requirements in the city’s storm water discharge permit. Urban storm water runoff is the single largest source of surface water pollution in Santa Barbara. The Federal Clean Water Act establishes the framework for regulating discharges of polluted urban runoff into creeks, wetlands and oceans. Under the regulation’s framework, cities that have separate municipal storm water systems, like Santa Barbara, must obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System storm water discharge permit, according to the staff report. The CCRWQCB issues the permits for the city, which is required to establish postconstruction storm water runoff management requirements for new development and redevelopment within the city.
The city requires development and redevelopment projects to include storm water best management practices to control runoff in compliance with the city’s permit. The permit requirements are implemented by city Municipal Code and in the BMP guidance manual. “With significant participation and input from stakeholders, staff proposes amendments to the City’s existing storm water discharge permit to simplify the requirements, provide more design flexibility, include updates in BMP design, create equity across geographic areas within the City, and improve cost effectiveness while still Please see council on A2
Board of Supervisors to respond to Grand Jury report criticizing cannabis rollout KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Tom Fruin’s 2019 “Camouflage House” art installation stands at Moser Meadow on top of Elings Park and will be available for public viewing through October.
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
At the top of Elings Park overlooking the ocean, a small, vibrant structure suddenly appeared on Sept. 2, and will remain for viewers’ enjoyment through October. The “Camouflage House” is a sculpture created from powdercoated steel and salvaged acrylic, with brilliant multi-colored
pieces that form a little house for admirers to enter and exit at their leisure. The Manhattan-based artist, Tom Fruin, said this specific piece is a little more personal than his others as a UCSB graduate. The Camouflage House is part of a series Mr. Fruin calls the Icon series, where he finds overlooked infrastructural or architectural items and creates art with them. “I’m trying to find things maybe
so commonplace you don’t pay attention, like a smoke stack or a billboard or a water tower, and make them fantastic,” Mr. Fruin told the News-Press. “The viewer might have the experience of re-recognizing their familiar surroundings in a fresh, new way.” The internationally acclaimed artist graduated from UCSB in 1996 with an art degree, and he’s been making sculptures, artwork and holding gallery shows ever
since in New York. “I tend to just use whatever’s around -- cardboard, rocks, twigs. I was quilting together beer cans, coffee lids, drug bags, trash I would find on my daily walks,” he said. “Surprisingly, they turned out to be really aesthetically pleasing. They were meant to be emblematic of that location or my experience in that location, which directly led to the Camouflage Please see HOUSE on A2
The Camouflage House doesn’t necessarily blend in with its surroundings, something artist Tom Fruin says is partly a joke and partly the grassy appearance of one side.
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By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
In June, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury issued a report titled “Cannabis” that was critical of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors’ public process for its ordinance allowing local cannabis production. Today, the board will vote on a written response for its chair to sign and send to the presiding judge of the Santa Barbara Superior Court. According to the drafted response that the board will consider at today’s meeting, the Grand Jury report made 12 findings. Findings regarding the board’s public process include that the Board of Supervisors inadequately considered the impact of cannabis production on the health and safety of Santa Barbara County residents; created an ad hoc subcommittee on cannabis not open to the public that lacked transparency, and granted unfettered and undisclosed access to cannabis industry lobbyists during the creation of cannabis ordinances. The report also made findings that there is a conflict between cannabis production and traditional agriculture in Santa Barbara County, that the amount of cannabis production allowed under current ordinances is excessive and led to overconcentration, that the board’s unverified affidavit system doesn’t require proof of prior cannabis operations to establish eligibility to keep growing legal cannabis, that the affidavit system doesn’t require
While the board will implement the report’s recommendation that it involve the County TreasurerTax Collector in creating future ordinances, it will not implement any of the other recommendations suggested by the Grand Jury. proof of prior scope of cannabis acreage, that taxing cannabis according to gross receipts is less reliable than according to square footage, that the County treasurer-tax collector wasn’t included in creating the cannabis ordinance’s tax portions, that members of the County Chief Executive Office successfully got a one mile buffer recommendation eliminated without the board’s knowledge, that there has not been effective odor control for cannabis cultivation, and that the Board of Supervisors doesn’t have a Please see bos on A8
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LOTTERY
Comics................. A6 Classified............... A7 Life.................... A3-4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 4-5-13-22-23 Meganumber: 24
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Monday’s DAILY 3: 9-6-5 / Sunday’s Midday 1-8-1