Edhat Reader
Architectural Review Board attendance will be visible metric of public opposition to development
By Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs
The City of Carpinteria Architectural Review Board hearing on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m. at Carpinteria City Hall will give members of the public their first official opportunity to comment about the controversial proposal to build 178,000-square-feet of new buildings adjacent to the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve.
Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs has worked to educate fellow Carpinterians about what is in the project and what steps concerned members of the public can take to save open, undeveloped coastal land from development. The Bluffs Resort proposal includes two hotel lodges with 59 rooms, 40 bungalows, an events center, restaurant, spa, two pools and two apartment buildings with 41 units.
In the few weeks Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs has conducted public outreach, it has gathered thousands of local followers who have pledged to work against the project’s approval.
“Members of the public are highly motivated and active in their opposition to this project,” said Patrick Crooks, Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs President. “The story poles erected by the developer to visualize the impacts of this project have done their job. Now the public will voice to the ARB what type of story those poles tell, and it’s not a story this town wants to come true.”
In pitching the massive luxury resort and housing project, the developer has attempted to sell the public on concepts around farming, land preservation and low-income housing. Despite overwhelming opposition to the Bluffs Resort at a 2022 conceptual review hearing, the developer carried the project forward, falsely labeling the concept “community driven.”
“For us, this is deja vous,” said Ted Rhodes, former President of Citizens for the Bluffs, which was founded in the 1990s following decades of public opposition to housing and commercial developments proposed for what is now the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve. “We know developers want to pave this land in a way that will maximize their profits. That is not the way we have done things in Carpinteria, and it’s why these review hearings are so important. We might be a sleepy town, but it takes residents being wide awake to keep it that way.”
ABOUT CITIZENS FOR THE CARPINTERIA BLUFFS
Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs was founded in 1996 as a nonprofit grassroots community organization to preserve forever the Carpinteria Bluffs as open space. The organization uses educational and promotional activities to raise public knowledge and appreciation of the Bluffs and its natural features. Its aim is to ensure that the Bluffs remain an area for active and passive recreation. The group was integral to preserving the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve and Viola Fields in 1998 and the Rincon Bluffs Preserve in 2018.
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If the developers approached the community in a way that felt more inclusive and aimed to truly understand resident’s concerns then this might have had a different response. We all know there’s a need for housing, we all know the state can grab the wheel and steer us in a different direction at any time, and we all know this town does not need another LA-inspired resort. If the developers stopped trying to market this as a community hangout under the guise of a hotel money grab then maybe Carpinterians would at least respect them a bit more.
Things that you might not know:
This is not a massive resort (unless any building equals “massive.”) The proposal only builds on 10% of the overall land and preserves 50% in perpetuity, which seems reasonable. The opponents seem to be really mad about the City’s own policies and zoning, which the project follows,
This is a 99-room bungalow style hotel, with most building heights at 13.” For comparison, Bacara and Miramar have hundreds of rooms, with much higher buildings, so it’s not a fair comparison.
Read it for yourself at https://carpinteriafarmbungalows.com.
Hi Carp Farm Bungalows representative, thanks for entering the chat. Why did you label the project as “community driven” when it is not? (also, it’s best to I.D. yourself when representing the organization)
Dear “Anonymous.”
Pot calling the kettle black maybe?
I’m just one of the many Carpinterians who want accurate information on the project. Unfortunately, the intimidation from people like you makes people like me concerned about sharing my name.
Intimidation? Oh please. Your initial comment reads like a press statement that could come from the developers themselves. This is straight from the developer’s site:
“How does building a bungalow retreat support preservation?
We are proposing the southern parcel and large area of the northern parcel be kept as open space and permanently protected through a Conservation Easement – nearly 14 acres. It would be restored with native habitat and landscape, along with creating the coastal trail connection that has been the missing link for many years to complete the coastal trail system. An endowment from the hotel revenue from the bungalow retreat will ensure funding to maintain and preserve the open space in perpetuity.”
The answer is… a hotel doesn’t support preservation, it supports financiers.
Dude, if 178K sq ft “is not massive”, I don’t know what is – Magic Mountain?? Cmon man…
Agreed.
Just one question for the generations of Carpinterians who claim this property is cherished, why did you not buy the property for the decades it was for sale? That would have shown you genuinely value it.
The worn-out Carpinteria narrative of opposing change is not going to work any longer. Carpinteria is on the radar of the Attorney General and Housing and Community Development for these types of actions. If you don’t like 41 units, you’re really not going to like the 1200+ units it could be based on state law. If you’d like to add your support for housing in Carpinteria, https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-41-affordable-homes-in-carpinteria?source=direct_link&
Wow, so Caitie Hamilton you’re actually saying this is what Newsom wants for his grand affordable housing mandate (which is garbage to begin with)? Really? I don’t think so. Not at all, girl. This is a resort, for wealthy folks, mostly from LA. No thank you.
Its awful. Huge water usage, completely out of character with the crown jewel that is the bluffs in Carp. Traffic is going to be terrible. Go away.
Probably 350 people showed up. About 99% vehemently opposed and rightly so. Deja vu all over again twenty years after the Serena/Brown proposal that was so bad.