AnonymousSource: City of Goleta
In response to a new Santa Barbara County Public Health Order, the City of Goleta is closing the Sperling Parking Lot at Ellwood Mesa located at the 7700 block of Hollister Avenue over the holiday weekend. City Manager Michelle Greene signed an emergency order today closing the parking lot starting Friday, July 3 at 12:01 a.m. through Monday, July 6 at 6 a.m. We are working with local law enforcement to conduct additional patrols of the areas and appreciate your cooperation in advance.
The order is in alignment with what other agencies are doing regionally to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The University of California Santa Barbara is closing parking lots at Campus Point and Sands Beach during the same time period. Santa Barbara County is closing the Goleta Beach parking lot except for restaurant access. The State is closing vehicular access to State Beaches.
The City’s emergency order does not encompass the Haskells Beach parking lot because the Ritz Carlton (Bacara) is the property owner of the parking lot. City staff has contacted the Bacara and both City and Bacara staff are working together to move forward with closing the parking lot at Haskells Beach.
According to the Santa Barbara County Health Officer Order issued today, throughout the 4th of July Holiday Weekend, activities on County Beaches are restricted to active recreation ONLY. Residents and visitors are able to access the beach for walking, running, biking and water activities, but are not permitted to sunbathe, picnic, stand, lie down, sit, or any other non-exercise, passive or sedentary activities on the beach. Additionally, beach visitors are not to use items such as umbrellas, shade structures, tents, barbeques, coolers, sand or beach toys, chairs etc.
The Health Order was issued in response to Santa Barbra County not meeting the threshold criteria for Elevated Disease Transmission, Increasing Hospitalization, and Limited Hospital Capacity for the past 16 days as noted in the County Monitoring Metrics.
Santa Barbara County Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg said, “The landscape for this upcoming weekend has changed in the past few days as more and more counties have decided to close their beaches. This raised significant concern for the impacts to our local community.”
The full health officer order can be found here. For more information about the COVID-19 response locally, visit www.publichealthsbc.org or call the County Call Center at 1(833) 688 – 5551.
This year’s 4th of July will be very different than we’ve previously experienced in Goleta, with no fireworks festival and beach restrictions. We want to remind the community of the following holiday weekend safety tips.
- Wear a face covering when not at home. This includes indoors at all businesses and outdoors when waiting for service and when interacting with anyone you don’t live with.
- Avoid crowded areas at parks, open spaces, streets and sidewalks.
- Maintain a safe six-foot distance at all times with anyone outside your household.
- Start a new tradition such as a backyard barbecue or picnic celebration at home.
- Firework use is strictly prohibited at home or public areas. The Santa Barbara County Fire Department reminds the public that all fireworks, including the so-called “Safe and Sane” variety, are illegal in all unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County, including the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, Buellton and Solvang.
In observance of the holiday, City Hall is closed Friday, July 3. The Goleta Valley, Buellton, and Solvang Libraries will also be closed for Sidewalk Service on Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4. Throughout the weekend City staff will be monitoring the situation and will provide information to the public as appropriate. Please follow us on Facebook (@CityofGoleta) and Twitter (@GoletaPIO) for the latest information and visit the COVID-19 page on our website at www.cityofgoleta.org/COVID19.
Source: UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Barbara Campus Beaches Closed for Holiday Weekend
In compliance with a new order from Santa Barbara County Public Health, UC Santa
Barbara will close campus beaches and adjacent parking lots from
Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5.
When
Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5
Where
Campus Point
Sands Beach
What
The campus also will temporarily close Parking Lot 6, the access lot for Campus Point, and Lots 45 and
45A, the access lots for Coal Oil Point, as well as the coastal access meters along Ocean Road near the Manzanita beach access.
Meanwhile, IV beaches were slammed. No parking within two blocks of Camino Majorca.
They are closing them as a response to LA closing their beaches. We don’t need hordes of the infected from down south storming our town.
What about SBCC’s lots and the lots by Pershing Park a.k.a. “Derelict Park”? They’re prime spots for downtown beaches and so are motels if they don’t keep an eye out.
These policies seem counter-intuitive. They reduce the number of recreation options for people forcing them to over-use the few remaining options that are not closed like Tunnel trail, parks and Paradise Recreation area. I would support beach closures if Health Officials said there are a large number of cases that traced to transmission at the beaches but that does not seem to be why they are closing them.