ARB Public Meeting on Carpinteria Bluffs Resort
Over 500 people showed up #CarpStrong at the first public Architectural Review Board (ARB) meeting on the resort proposal for the Carp Bluffs, held at the Carpinteria City Council Chambers on January 25. The chambers overflowed to the hallways, lobby, and outdoor tent with a live feed. Others watched it remotely. The attendees stayed the course of the 4.5-hour meeting, regardless of their cars being towed and fined due to parking issues. They wore green t-shirts and carried signs against the project.
The meeting was led by the ARB Board Chair Brad Stein, with board members Vice Chair Amy Blakemore, Richard E. Johnson, Richard Little, and Patrick O’Connor. Stein asked for everyone to be polite to each other knowing how heated this is. The meeting started with the ARB’s staff’s PowerPoint of the project from the plans architect developer Matthew Goodwin of Carp Bluffs, LLC., provided. ARB posed questions to clarify issues. Goodwin presented his proposal and had Ken Trigueiro from People’s Self Help-Housing (PSHH) speak to support the 41 apartments in the project. Public comments were heard (2.5hours) and tallied by Stein. ARB read their comments and concerns. ARB voted unanimously to not recommend advancing the current development proposal and to continue the decision in order to allow Goodwin to come into compliance with the city’s General Plan and ARB concerns.
Public comments cited the resort goes against the General Plan and Local Coastal Plan for Carpinteria, that Goodwin’s development would not provide any benefit for the residents, issues of tree removal, disruptive outdoor lighting, parking, fencing, and natural habitat and wildlife from the land to the ocean would be destroyed.
Chumash Elder Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto, “Walk softly over this land because our ancestors sleep here. The Spirit of the Land speaks, so do the children and the public.” And Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait-Stenslie said, “There is a lot of greenwashing going on here, and when we look at our homeland of 19,000 years, we know we’ve always been here. I’ve worked with the City of Carpinteria 40 years, what I see with the development is they have done a lot of work, it’s beautiful, but not there [the bluffs]. The children who spoke tonight are our future. We always have to come here and fight for the protection of our Chumash material world in that place. For 25 years we have been praying for the preservation of these lands. We just cannot allow this constant scene of saying that lands that are empty have to have something done on them. Please rethink what we are doing here. It can be done somewhere else, infrastructure that needs rebuilding, but not on our sacred coastal lands. Thank you.”
ARB Board comments started with O’Connor, saying, “To me this is an incomplete proposal. The seals and Chumash are not addressed at all in the developer’s proposal. There are issues of safety on Carp Ave. What is the plan for the southern 4.13 acres? I vote that the ARB not advance this project from preliminary to final.” Little said he’s never seen affordable housing with 10-foot ceilings, “The bigger question is: why here and why now? Maybe you should buy the Motel Six on Carp. Ave and redo that.”
Johnson said, “We, as well as all you guys understand the need, desire and love of open space. We have a planning issue here that it’s not allowed to just be open and stay that way for the rest of its life or our lives. So, we have to make a deal and what’s the best deal we can make.”
Blakemore said, “The first five pages of the landscape plans are completely illegible, nobody even checked them. There is a sign from your team nailed to one of the sycamore trees. Organic farming next to the hotel is not going to work. It’s a pretty picture, logistically it’s not been thought out. I cannot support a project that has 47,000 cubic yards of grading.”
Stein commented, “Issue number one from me is that this project is not compatible with that neighborhood. It does not conform to the Carpinteria standards we have had under the projects here. Right now, emphatically, where I’m sitting, I would never support this. We’re not trying to make this into something else, we are Carpinteria, and you really didn’t look at it. The trees you plan to remove have been here longer than any of us, they are iconic. Parking is an issue for your project from the housing to the event center, if you were sincere about being part of the city, parking would be part of it. Putting a path across the RR track, you are really opening yourself up to liability, someone getting hit. Live feed camera at the Seal Rookery?”
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