Stop damage to the historic riparian corridor!

The proposed Goerner Development Project in upper Hot Springs Canyon would:

• Pave over a scenic section of the Hot Springs Trail and remove large amounts of vegetation, replacing it with a wide paved road backed by retaining walls, forever altering this gateway to our National Forest!
• Interfere with and severely disrupt trail use and access over a 3-year construction period, with periodic trail closures. Trail users are subjected to restrictions and long waits by flaggers controlling heavy construction traffic along the trail. 
• Trail users are exposed to high levels of dust, noise, and diesel pollutant emissions from large trucks, pile drivers, cranes, and bulldozers. 
• Damage or removal of dozens of mature native oaks and sycamores significantly damages native Environmentally Sensitive Habitats and harms rare species in conflict with adopted County policy.
• Substantially increases wildfire hazards.

 
Please sign the petition to the County of Santa Barbara, Planning and Development Department (P&D) requesting that P&D prepare a focused Environmental Impact Report for the environmentally destructive Goerner Development Project. The EIR should require mitigation measures to reduce significant impacts to public recreation from prolonged construction, better protect native habitats and trail aesthetic character, and review project alternatives that eliminate or reduce such impacts. 

Dear Ms. King,

We, the undersigned, consider the Hot Springs Trail and the access provided to the Montecito Hot Springs to be a recreational, scenic, and cultural resource of the highest value that should be recognized as such under the California Environmental Quality Act and protected by the County. Therefore, we request that the County Planning and Development Department (P&D) prepare a focused Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the environmentally destructive Goerner Development Project. We request that the County:

• Identify mitigation measures to substantially shorten the project construction period and limit its interference with recreational trail use.
• Require revegetation of the bank of Hot Springs Creek with native trees and shrubs to help minimize the impacts of the conversion of a public natural trail to a wide paved road. 
• Review a permanent bypass trail to permit trail users the option of not walking along the wide paved road. 
• Require payment of compensatory fees to community trail organizations to permit improvements to Hot Springs Trail to partially offset the project's significant impacts to a major public trail, a significant community resource.
• Consider project alternatives that eliminate or reduce significant impacts to public recreation from prolonged construction and better protect native habitats and trail aesthetic character.

Deadline is July 8th. Act now!  Sign Petition: https://bit.ly/savehotspringstrail

Joni Mitchell made a song famous 50 years ago as a call to action to prevent the damage we are doing to the environment. The song reminds us not to take things for granted and to find a way to balance progress with nature. "Don't it always seem to go that you do not know what you've got 'til it's gone..."

To simplify, we have created a sample letter for you to use, or you can write your own. Please send your comment letter to Veronica King, Planner via email to kingv@nullcountyofsb.org

https://sbtrails.org/docs/Hot-Springs-Trail-Draft-Letter.pdf PDF Download

https://sbtrails.org/docs/Hot-Springs-Trail-Draft-Letter.docx Word Download

The public comment period for the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration prepared for the Goerner SFD project, Case Nos. 08DVP-00000-00022/09CUP-00000-00007, ends  on June 19th, 2024, at 5:00 p.m . The document and all attachments/figures are available on the P&D website at https://cosantabarbara.app.box.com/s/k04ychmxlsz0o8h850t7bqwk1lkn1yb9.

Please send comments with the subject line "Goerner Development Project IS/MND Comments" to

Veronica King, Planner
County Planning and Development Department
123 E. Anapamu Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
kingv@nullcountyofsb.org
(805)568-2513

The 100-page Draft Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Goerner Project project is at this link.
https://cosantabarbara.app.box.com/s/k04ychmxlsz0o8h850t7bqwk1lkn1yb9/file/1520466230250

The limited recreation and trail user information is in this section: 4.13 Recreation (pages 85-88)

Thank you for being so supportive!

If you have questions. don't hesitate to get in touch with Mark Wilkinson