Organizers of the push to buy Ellwood Mesa and preserve its open space came within $350,000 of their $20.4 million goal on Tuesday, as Santa Barbara County kicked in another hefty donation hours before today's fund-raising deadline.
As they celebrated unanimous Board of Supervisors approval of the $400,000 county contribution, representatives from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land said the remaining deficit would not jeopardize purchase of the bluff top.
An extension of the deadline for accepting donations and closing the deal appeared likely, following talks between the trust and developer Bob Comstock, who controls rights to the windswept 137-acre property that features a monarch butterfly habitat along nearly a mile of natural coastline.
Posted by gandlwoods at December 15, 2004 09:03 AM