Congressman Salud Carbajal’s office announced today that it had secured a $13.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on behalf of the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District that will allow the county to purchase several properties along Randall Road in Montecito and begin construction on a new debris basin near San […]
In the middle of another heat wave, it’s 95 degrees near the beach in Montecito and everybody has moved indoors. Everybody except our small group trailing behind Luis Alvarado, a determined homeless outreach specialist with the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Department who has come to Montecito to make contact with as many homeless people […]
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The pandemic has introduced a slew of new neighborhood issues that require a lot of work to untangle. We’re happy to step up for some of these, but many are outsider-induced. Most of these issues started up in late spring, near Memorial Day, when the lockdowns had eased, the weather got warmer, and people wanted […]
Monday morning at 6 am, a crowd of 30 gathered at a church in Santa Barbara’s Eastside to perform a homeless census count. This is part of the Hands Across Montecito Project, started by the Montecito Association in response to concerns of large encampments growing along the tracks, encounters on Coast Village, thefts, and fires. […]
At the Montecito Association, we often work with neighbors on specific issues. Who is responsible for the tree dropping bowling ball-sized pinecones in the street? Who handles the trash at Highway 101 and Hot Springs Road? What do I do if my neighbor’s hedge becomes infested with rats? These types of questions often require calls […]
We handle it all at the Montecito Association Transportation Committee No matter what your transportation concern is, chances are good that someone from the Montecito Association Transportation Committee is already working on it. We’ve put together an all-star lineup that meets over Zoom to work on the most pressing issues in this area: Chad Chase: […]
On Tuesday, September 1, the Board of Supervisors considered revisions to an ordinance pertaining to short-term vacation rentals (STRs) in unincorporated Santa Barbara County. The last ordinance drafted was in 2017/2018, but was quickly denied by the Coastal Commission, which cited the failure of the ordinance to protect existing overnight accommodations in the Coastal Zone. […]
For a man accustomed to building and racing some of the world’s fastest cars, Paul Madsen could be forgiven for thinking that it wouldn’t take two years to receive a permit to rebuild his house, which was destroyed in the January 2018 debris flows. But as the Montecito Journal highlighted last week, so far, it’s […]
At an over nine-hour joint hearing on Thursday, August 20, the Santa Barbara City Planning Commission and the Montecito Planning Commission went over the proposed roundabout project at Coast Village Road and Olive Mill Road with a fine-tooth comb, digging into design details, functionality, aesthetics, and conditions of approval of the project, which is in […]
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County Responds to Concerns Over Pesticide Spraying in Debris Basins On August 6, acting on a tip from a reader, the Montecito Journal‘s Kelly Mahan Herrick reported that Santa Barbara County Flood Control employees had been spraying Roundup brand weed killer in the San Ysidro Creek debris basin. Since that article appeared, concerned readers have […]
To get on the 101 Freeway heading south at San Ysidro Road, you must first turn left on South Jameson Lane and then drive past the Rosewood Miramar Beach until you come to a stop sign at the corner of Posilipo Lane, just north of the train tracks. In front of you is an unforgivingly […]
At their hearing on Tuesday, August 18, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors approved the Environmental Impact Report for the proposed debris basin on Randall Road. A draft of the report was released in early May. The project, which is still in its design phase, includes building a new off-channel debris basin on San […]
At this month’s Montecito Association board meeting, Montecito Union School and Cold Spring School superintendents reported that school will begin next week, on a virtual platform. Dr. Anthony Ranii from MUS reported that enrollment is up to 376 students, and the school is in process of distributing computers to each student. Administrators are also preparing […]
In July, we received and published the following letter, from a concerned Montecito hiker: Recently, I believe Tuesday June 18th, my friends are I took a hike up San Ysidro Trail. About a half a mile up the trail, we saw workers in the middle of the creekbed spraying. The spraying wasn’t being done directly […]