Cal State a Step Closer in Its Bid for Ranch

Despite environmental protests, California State University on Wednesday came a step closer toward placing a campus on Taylor Ranch west of Ventura.

The university’s Board of Trustees voted to approve a final environmental impact report for the ranch, including a series of measures designed to lessen damage to the scenic hillside property.

Although not all the negative impact could be mitigated, the board concluded: “The project will have positive humanistic, educational and cultural impact on the area, which will override the adverse environmental impact.”

The move was immediately criticized by Patagonia, the Ventura-based outdoor clothing company, which contends that Cal State’s report seriously underestimated the negative impact of development on the seaside bluff.

The firm, which commissioned a private study of the report, charged that the document is based on only 2,000 students initially attending the two-year extension facility, while ignoring the possibility of expansion to a four-year school with several thousand more students.

“We think they’re dealing in bad faith,” said Patagonia spokesman Kevin Sweeney, adding that a recent California Supreme Court decision would back up the company’s case. “We intend to fight this site through whatever means available.”

Medicine Man

Patagonia also submitted a letter on behalf of a Chumash medicine man, further objecting to any development. In the letter, Kote Lotah, an An’tap priest from Ventura, said the ranch was “a well-known ceremonial shrine” that “has tremendous spiritual and religious significance to our people.”

The Board of Trustees, in approving the report, acknowledged that development of a 465-acre parcel of the ranch would have an adverse environmental impact on traffic, air quality and solid-waste disposal, and could possibly disturb ancient Chumash Indian burial grounds.

However, to lessen those impacts, a series of measures were also approved, including widening several city streets, encouraging car pools, developing a recycling program, conducting a detailed archeological study and using hooded street lamps to reduce glare from the hillside.

Still, the report indicated that not all of the impacts could be reduced, which required the trustees under state law to rule that the benefits to be derived from the proposed university created “overriding considerations” that outweighed any adverse environmental impact.

Should the campus need to grow, Cal State officials said they see no problem in conducting another environmental impact report to assess the expanded facility.

For now, though, Cal State views its biggest hurdle as acquiring the property, which is owned by Santa Barbara residents Ailene B. Claeyssens and her daughter, Cynthia Wood, who have refused to sell.

The university is taking steps, including preparation of the environmental impact report and an appraisal of the property, that are consistent with purchasing the land through eminent domain, a power granted to public agencies for acquiring private land for public purposes.

The trustees will ask the state Department of General Services to take the necessary steps to acquire the property, officials said. Meanwhile, the university will make Claeyssens and Wood an offer on the land.