History of Goleta Beach Park
- Goleta Beach Park 29 acres, free parking, one restaurant, 1.5 million estimated visitors/yr managed by SB County Parks Dept
- Some 90% of park protected by rock revetment
- Major storms recorded since 1943 have penetrated both the beach and park with substantial damage to County assets (see images link)
- Storms 2002-05 required “emergency permitted” rock revetment placements to stop further erosion
- Then 2nd District County Supervisor ( Susan Rose ) set up a task force (Goleta Beach Working Group) eight years ago with summary findings (wave mitigation, wider beach, park protection)
- Consisted of County staff, private citizens, geologist from UCSB, Surf Riders, EDC
- Supported the recommended environmentally superior plan of a expansion of a recreational facility, Goleta Pier
- Environmental review conducted and County Supervisors approved
- Coastal Commission staff review Jan 2008 – June 2009
- Staff recommended approval
- CCC voted 9-1 to turn down plan July 2009 - only approve a “Managed Retreat” plan
- County withdrew project
- County Supervisors established Goleta Beach 2.0 Concept Planning Process Oct 2009
- County Parks publically announced new concept Feb 2010. On May 15th 2012, the County Board of Supervisors approved the consulting comtract for Goleta Beach 2.0 E.I.R ( Managed Retreat).
- Major elements of Goleta Beach 2.0
- Remove ~1200 linear feet of “emergency rocks” currently not permitted
- Remove ~154 parking spaces and locate offsite replacement parking facilities.
- Relocate essential utility lines farther landward out of the erosion process zone.
- Construct a geo-textile sand bag dune to protect the parking lot and the Goleta Sanitary District's cathodic protection vault Westward of the Beachside restaurant
- Friends of Goleta Beach Park, i.e. the majority of the old Goleta Beach Working Group, assessment today:
- Some County Decision Makers “afraid of” EDC lawsuit or CCC threat to remove unpermitted rock revetments and levying a fine of $375,000
- CCC (Section 30235) and the certified Local Coastal Plan ( Policy 3-2 ) allow structural protection for threatened infrastructure.
- Recently approved emergency permit rock revetment for Broad Beach Malibu residences
- Managed Retreat is an experiment and Goleta Beach Park is the first CCC project
- All rock revetments on western side of park have been placed above the high high tide line (HHTL) with no evidence of sand erosion by such structure nor loss of sand to down coast beaches. Sand movement measurements conducted by BEACON verify this fact.
- Natural sand nourishment today comes from ocean currents (Pacific Decadal Oscillation) vs sediment transport creeks and rivers dammed
- Rock revetments are a major backstop to prevent El Nino storms (no loss of property since 2005)
- CCC needs a victory and Goleta Beach Park is their guinea pig
Blog
Detective Work at Goleta Beach: Examining Montecito Mud
Michael Rattray: Geotextile Solution Provides Valuable Protection for Goleta Beach Park
Last Thursday, the California Coastal Commission voted 7-4 for retaining an emergency eco-friendly protection measure designed and constructed by Santa Barbara Countyfor unprotected areas of Goleta Beach Park.
Letter to CCC May 26, 2016
Friends of Goleta Beach Park (herein Friends…) fully supports the County of Santa Barbara recommendations for an amendment to the Coastal Permit CDP 4-14-0687 for retaining the revetment measures designed and constructed under the Emergency Coastal Development Permit 4-16-0027.