Grass-Roots Campaign Tries to Save Bluffs

It’s not just breathtaking views of the Channel Islands that make the Carpinteria Bluffs so special, residents here say. The ocean-side tract must be saved, they add, because it is a rare, unspoiled spot amid creeping suburban sprawl.

So a grass-roots campaign is in the final stretch of raising funds to buy a 55-acre chunk of the bluffs and preserve this last piece of privately held, undeveloped coast between Santa Barbara and Ventura as parkland.

With $205,000 left to be raised by Dec. 31, activists are going door to door asking for donations. Merchants in this Santa Barbara County community are contributing a percentage of their sales. Fund-raising parties and concerts have been held. Local schools are pushing nickel and penny drives.

If the campaign succeeds, a nonprofit conservancy organization will transfer the land to city ownership. If the deadline is not met, the current owners are expected to raise the sale price sharply from the current $3.95 million and consider a plan to build a business park on the bluffs.

Perched about 100 feet above the Pacific, the bluffs are beloved by area hikers and surfers. In the past, development plans for an oil refinery, hotel and housing projects have been killed by community protests, but the land’s future as open space was never guaranteed.

“The Carpinteria Bluffs have become greater than themselves. It’s about a community wanting its future to be planned with a certain vision,” said Ted Rhodes, who is president of Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs, the group raising the money for the land trust.

Rhodes said he does not want Carpinteria to experience the same kind of sprawl that he saw engulf the San Gabriel Valley, where he grew up. A key grip in the film industry, he took off from work this fall to spearhead the campaign.

The project has received a $500,000 grant and a $1-million loan from the California Coastal Conservancy, plus $450,000 from a special Santa Barbara County fund of oil money aimed at coastal protection. The Wallace Foundation donated $300,000, and hundreds of smaller donations were received, including the proceeds from youngsters selling their artwork of the bluffs.

“We’re everywhere right now,” said Christie L. Boyd, who has been coordinating volunteers to go door to door.

There’s also the “Bob challenge,” in which planning commissioner Robert Needham is trying to get $10 contributions from “Bobs” throughout the country so they can name a million-dollar bluff after themselves. “Aren’t we all Bobs deep down? Why wait for some rich person to come in and do this for us?” Needham said. His effort has netted about $4,000.

A History of Contention

Although $205,000 is still needed, activists stress that the fund-raising won’t end with the purchase because the group must repay the $1-million state loan.

The Carpinteria Bluffs are on the ocean side of Highway 101, northwest of Rincon Point at Ballard Avenue. The large stretch of grassy land has a eucalyptus grove on the side, and great views of Anacapa, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands.

Although the purchase plan seems to have communitywide support now, the land has played a contentious role in Carpinteria politics.

“The fact that we’ve allowed the bluffs to be protected all these years means we won’t let anything happen to them now,” said Vera J. Bensen, a 40-year Carpinteria resident who has seen her town swallow up the land around the bluffs.

A stretch of townhouses sits just across the freeway. On one side of the bluffs are a golf driving range and a Chevron Oil facility, with a business and industrial park on the other. Amtrak train tracks go through the bluffs as they proceed along some of the most scenic real estate in California.

In August, the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County and property owner Shea/Vickers Development LLC reached agreement on the $3.95-million purchase price, which all sides describe as considerably below the market value.

There are provisions to extend the purchase agreement through March, but officials declined to reveal how high the price will go after Dec. 31. If the purchase doesn’t go through, the company said it will continue trying to develop a business park at the site.

At the Bluffs, a Different Scene

The sense of urgency in the campaign to save the bluffs was in direct contrast with the laid-back ambience at the bluffs on a recent sunny December morning. A woman walked with a parrot on her shoulder. Surfers hiked to a spot in a nearby seal rookery--where surfing is illegal. Other visitors jogged, and some leisurely walked dogs.

Jason Barnett came to the bluffs with his 3-year-old son, Damian. Barnett lives in Oxnard, but he grew up in Carpinteria and talks longingly of the days when there was easy access to such surf sites. “There’s just not much room left,” he said.

Michael Feeney, executive director of the county’s land trust, said the relatively small size of the Carpinteria Bluffs and its urban setting dissuaded many potential large givers who pride themselves on preserving the coast.

Still, Feeney said he had hopes that the fund-raising efforts will succeed soon. “We haven’t got a great big angel on this project. We have a lot of medium, little and tiny angels,” Feeney said.