GOLETA BEACH 2.0 (Alternative)
Goleta Beach Park Coalition Position Paper
3-22-2010
Goleta Beach Park has been a treasured community recreational asset going back to the early 1900’s when it was a State Beach Park. Every generation since has valued and worked for its preservation and today it is still the most heavily used park in the Santa Barbara County system. As such, a more permanent solution for the park is required to safe-guard this ~29 acre parcel, in its present form, in order to leave a legacy for future generations of park visitors.
Saving Goleta Beach Park requires a public commitment to preserve the integrity of the existing parks’ unique amenities:
- readily available and close to the beach parking accessibility and adequate spaces for peak demand
- a sizeable existing family oriented grass area with picnic, playground, and restroom facilities
- a readily accessible beach area along the entire parking frontage with an ongoing strategy to maximize sand retention to ensure the largest possible beach
As such, there are three steps required:
- Permit/grandfather all existing unpermitted revetment barriers, or install equivalent eco-friendly barriers, as a permanent backstop revetment protection zone for existing county assets, underground utilities and all structures. Most of the revetments have been in place from 8-25 years. Also expand revetment at center of park to protect the Goleta Sanitary Outfall Vault. Indeed, most of these zones are now well occupied with residents that enhance the beach biological environment while protecting the park shoreline during violent storms. The future continued integrity of our park is best insured by guarding our coastline well, and this position, or an equivalent alternative, has passed the test of time with no identified disruption to the balance of nature or to claimed littoral inhibitions to sand movement. One only has to examine the sand deposits in Santa Barbara harbor to dispel this claim as invalid. Indeed the down coast sand deposits have served as a replenishment source of sand this past winter for Goleta Beach.
- Continue the Goleta Beach nourishment program on an as required basis. This secondary solution has proven its worth over countless storm erosions as a non-evasive eco-friendly impact allowing our 29 acre park to flourish and provide the same consistent enjoyment year over year.
- Provide on-site park rangers/maintenance staff for as a service to the annual 1.5 million visitors and to support daily operation/maintenance requirements. Qualified rangers are required to provide engineering and operational efficiencies on an on-going basis.
The Save Our Park (S.O.P.) program outlined here represents a low investment, conservative, eco-friendly strategy by minimizing costly and otherwise potentially destructive measures that will not provide adequate assurance for saving our park in its present form. The Army Corp of Engineers, States, Counties, and Municipals have approved and used eco-friendly revetment protection solutions to preserve shorelines and waterways consistent with this approach. The California Coastal Commission has also approved such measures as the proper path in providing balanced environmentally sound protective measures; most recently with the rock revetment work now underway on Broad Beach in Malibu.
Considering the extensive use of the Goleta Beach Park and the societal value of its continued use, it is imperative that this treasured environment be preserved and protected for generations to come. Alternative solutions have been explored and deliberated without consensus as to how to preserve our park with common sense and low cost solutions. We believe this lowest possible cost, environmentally sensitive, and coastline neutral set of solutions is in the best interest of our local community, the environment and in full compliance with the California Coastal Act.
Authors:
- Kristen Amyx
- Tim Mahoney
- Glen Davis
- Michael Rattray
- Ed de la Torre
- Dan Secord
- Nancy Graham
- Greg Smith
- Dave Hardy
- Larry Stone
- Jim Hickling
- Art Sylvester