Preserve Goleta Farmland
- by: Shelly Cobb
- recipient: SB County Supervisors, GVPAC, Goleta City Council
The County of Santa Barbara is in the process of updating the 1993 Community Plan. According to the Goleta Valley Planning Advisory Committee (GVPAC),
"Urban Agriculture shall be preserved unless:
* the County makes findings that the land is no longer appropriate for agriculture or
* there is an overriding public need for conversion to other uses for which there is no other land available in the Goleta urban area."
The Goleta farmlands that are at risk of being developed include:
* San Marcos/Hollister Ave (51 acres)
* South Patterson (610 acres)
* Christmas Tree Farm (26 acres)
* MTD (17 acres)
These are the areas in GREEN in the diagram on the left.
Farmland in California and all over the US is being paved over at an alarming rate and the cost of imported food will continue to rise as gas prices rise. The quality of imported food cannot be monitored as easily as our local food. We are already dependent on foreign gas, do we want to be dependent on foreign food too?
If you are concerned about saving our local farmland, protecting our community's food supply, and preserving our community's health, please sign our petition and let your local government know how you feel. The petition can be found by clicking "letter" under the map to the left.
In the interest of protecting our community food supply both now and in the future and preserving the health of our community, WE the undersigned people of SANTA BARBARA COUNTY want to preserve and protect the agriculture zoning restrictions of existing agricultural land throughout the Goleta Valley.
To this end, Santa Barbara County Supervisors and Goleta City Council members must NOT allow rezoning or development on existing Goleta Valley agricultural land.
