Goleta OKs Ellwood housing project

A proposal to build a 62-unit subdivision on part of Ellwood Mesa,
can now advance to the state Coastal Commission for consideration.

The Goleta City Council unanimously approved a 62-unit housing subdivision for the Ellwood Mesa perimeter late Monday, a milestone in a nearly two-decade movement to shape development on a central section of the coastal wildland.

Approval sets the stage for state Coastal Commission consideration of the Comstock Homes and Development Partners subdivision, possibly by October. In connection, local officials plan to send the panel a package of plans aimed at creating more than a 600-acre recreational Ellwood-Devereux Open Space.

"We're pretty much there," Mr. Comstock said Tuesday. "We are very hopeful we can get through."

Environmental groups celebrated a victory. For years, several have fought housing on the mesa and more recently worked with Mr. Comstock to tweak his proposal.

"This is really the greatest win-win solution we could possibly think of," said Brian Trautwein, an analyst with the Environmental Defense Center. The organization represents the Santa Barbara Audubon Society and the nonprofit Save Ellwood Shores. "Never before in EDC's experience have we had the opportunity to work with a developer so forthrightly."

Plans call for 37 two-story and 25 one-story homes, ranging in size from 2,871 square feet to 4,141 square feet.

In recent weeks, Mr. Comstock removed a controversial "pod" of six view-blocking homes opposed by neighbors and City Hall that he had drawn along Hollister Avenue. It appears that future residents of the subdivision will pay special fees to compensate the developer for the financial hit.

The council, in a separate 5-0 vote, also named more than 130 acres of the mesa the "Sperling Preserve." In June 2003, part-time local residents Peter and Stephanie Sperling donated $5 million toward an ongoing fund-raising drive to protect the central mesa indefinitely, through a complex land swap shifting new homes away from the central bluff top.

"I don't think we would have been here tonight, taking the action we were taking tonight, without the donation," Councilwoman Margaret Connell said.

In approving the Comstock project, the council imposed several conditions, among them: The developers must install a special sewer pump to serve the community, and must construct a perimeter sound wall. They must use drought-tolerant, native or non-invasive landscaping, provide pedestrian and cyclist access easements through the gated community and install so-called "mutt mitts" for residents to clean up after their dogs.

In addition, as proposed by Mr. Comstock, no residential second units (granny flats) or detached structures will be allowed. The developers also must fund snowy plover protections, and construction must be timed to avoid monarch butterfly mating season. They must make bus stop, sidewalk, landscaping and other improvements along Hollister and contribute $1 million to the city for the creation of affordable housing.

Floor model plans and associated details such as exterior paint hues must still be approved by the city Design Review Board prior to the Coastal Commission meeting.

The project stems from a carefully brokered land swap linked to a master plan to create the proposed 652-acre Ellwood-Devereux Open Space. Portions would fall on UCSB and Santa Barbara County land, adjacent to areas where other housing projects are proposed.

In a key component, the Trust for Public Land intends to buy what is now the 137-acre Sperling Preserve from Comstock Homes for more than $20 million, then give the property to the city of Goleta as a park.

The city, in turn, is allowing the developer, who is expected to reap a multimillion-dollar profit, to build next to the preserve at the 38-acre Santa Barbara Shores city park.

The trust still needs to raise $3 million, although $2 million is likely to come from the state Wildlife Conservation Board next month.

Peter Sperling is senior vice president of the Apollo Group, and is its second-largest stockholder. The firm is parent company of University of Phoenix Online. Its largest stockholder is his father, John Sperling, the university founder and one of the wealthiest men in America.

Mr. Sperling, a UCSB graduate, also is chairman of CallWave Inc. of Santa Barbara, a communications software company, and chairman of Ecliptic Enterprises of Pasadena, which produces data and imaging systems for spacecraft.

The mesa was named after Ellwood Cooper, a 19th-century nurseryman who owned the land at one time. He is known as an early importer of commercially sold eucalyptus trees.