Submitted by Dave Hardy – Beachside Bar Cafe

Goleta Beach Preferred Long-Term Project

Prepared for:

Goleta Beach Master Planning Group

Prepared by:

Dave Hardy

Beachside Café

April 21, 2004

INTRODUCTION

As a member of the Goleta Beach Master Planning Group, I am submitting the following project for addressing the erosion problems at Goleta Beach Park

It is my hope that this proposed plan will be seen as the most feasible and realistic project, reflecting the wants and needs of the community at large. This plan will benefit the residents of Santa Barbara County and meet the needs of sound management of this very important County Asset.

The following factors were considered in creating this project.

Goleta Beach County Park is one of the most valued assets to the people of this community.

By not protecting the Park, coastal access will be denied to the people who use this park, the most used park in the county.

This community needs more parks not fewer parks.

The Park has economic value as both an income generating asset as well as a very valuable piece of real property.

The costs of not physically preserving the Park are enormous compared to the costs of protecting the Park and its infrastructure.

There are legal ramifications and costs regarding leases and rights of way if this asset is intentionally not protected.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF GOLETA BEACH PARK

OVERVIEW

At the Supervisors Meeting on February 25, 2003 Supervisor Rose presented her plan for a community visioning process to resolve the situation at Goleta Beach Park. At that meeting she said

“I am going to do everything I can to preserve the Beach and the Park.”

“. . . I am not willing to choose one over the other.”

With those promises in mind I became part of the Goleta Beach Working Group to represent my business interest at the Park, but also to represent the people who use the park daily. Being at the Park almost every day for the last four years I have talked to many hundreds of people who use the Park. I have yet to meet one person at the Park who does not want to keep the Park intact. The Park is universally loved by this community. They do not want to lose it and their access to the coast.

Over this lengthy visioning process I have found very little talk, if any, about saving the Park. The focus seems to have been on managed retreat and how to reconfigure the Park while it washes away.

My proposal is to recapture lost acreage and save the Park in its original form, as of four years ago. Once the Park is protected, we can then address the need for a wider beach. From what I have gathered from our scientific panel both projects are possible.

FIRST

My vision is to recapture the lost acreage and save the Park. The only method proposed for saving the Park during this process has been to construct a buried revetment the length of the Park. Like the current temporary revetment, the rocks might be exposed during the two or three severe storms in the winter. However, the revetment would be covered by sand for the majority of the year, especially in the spring, summer, and fall when the Park is used the most.

This will accomplish several things.

It will preserve the community’s beloved Park

It will maintain the only significant access to the coastline. Hendry’s Beach is already filled to capacity on a nice day and the Santa Barbara Beaches would be overwhelmed even though Santa Barbara charges for parking. Up the coast access is very limited all the way into San Luis Obispo County.

It is by far the most affordable on any projects mentioned.

It will afford a true opportunity to reconfigure the Park if the community feels there are improvements worth making.

And finally, it will give the beach an opportunity to be widened. If the Park washes away no one will want to spend money on a beach that has no access.

SECOND

Once the park is safe and protected the next step is to widen the beach. Because the Park is not in danger of being washed away this project can be done in stages if resources are limited.

Ed de la Torre’s Goleta Beach & Park Preservation Proposal is a good idea. It is aimed at maintaining a wider beach once the back fill sand has been put in place. And it can be built in stages. Its success can be easily monitored and each stage can be adjusted for the success of the previous stage or stages.

IN CLOSING

This community does not want to lose this Park and its access to the coastline. My vision for this area is to recapture the lost acreage, protect the Park with a buried revetment, and then widen the beach. Scientifically we have been told this can be done with little or no effect on the existing surroundings.

Managed retreat is not an option. If used, the Park will retreat until . . . ? No one knows. It has not been proven that managed retreat would protect the Park. Even Gary Timm from the California Coastal Commission admitted that managed retreat is experimental, and he knows of no beaches that have been saved by this approach. The only method presented to us to save the Park is a feasible, attainable, proven buried rock revetment. Until there is another proven option for saving the Park, a buried revetment is our only solution.