KEY MILESTONE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TRANSFER OF DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS PROGRAM (TDR) FOR NAPLES.

The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission, in a critical meeting open to the public for comment, will further consider and give direction concerning critical elements of the newly initiated Naples Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program for the proposed development at Naples (aka Santa Barbara Ranch).

Please attend this meeting to show your support for the critically important Transfer of Development Rights program at Naples.

WHEN: May 7, 2008 (time to be determined)

WHERE: Planning Commission Hearing room on the 1st floor of the County Administration Building at 105 E. Anapamu, c/o Anacapa and Anapamu. Check the Planning Commission website for the agenda and time to be posted by April 30. http://applications.sbcountyplanning.org/boards/pc/cpc.cfm?rss=cpc

Hearings are typically broadcast live on Government Access Television Channel 20, and rebroadcast Fridays at 5:00 PM.

Contact the Naples Coalition Program Director Kristen Hoye, 805-452-5936, for more information concerning this meeting.

Background

Vintage Properties of Orange County proposes to build between 54 to 72 large houses (plus attending structures) on the Naples property (aka the Santa Barbara Ranch project), located on the Gaviota Coast, two miles west of the City of Goleta. This number of homes and suburban development on the rural Gaviota Coast conflicts with numerous County policies and regulations.

The County Local Coastal Plan requires that before Naples can be rezoned, the County must determine if a “transferred development rights” program, or “TDR,” could effectively transfer the development embedded in the antiquated lots at Naples onto urban lands more suited for this intensity of development. The California Coastal Act discourages conversion of agricultural lands and residential sprawl into rural areas. Ultimately, the California Coastal Commission will review the County’s action concerning Naples, including the TDR program.

Specifically, Coastal Land Use Policy 2-13 states: “The County shall encourage and assist the property owner(s) in transferring development rights from the Naples town site to an appropriate site within a designated urban area which is suitable for residential development.” Only if TDR is found to not be feasible may the County consider re-zoning the property as requested by the developer.

The Naples property is 485 acres of grazing and orchard land that Vintage Communities of Orange County, a builder of “luxury home communities”, proposes to convert to an up-scale “private residential enclave”.

This image of a portion of the Naples property north of Highway 101 is a close approximation of the impact that this proposed project will have on the rural, agricultural environment of the property and the larger Gaviota Coast. Development at Naples has the potential to profoundly influence the long-term viability and integrity of agriculture and the rural character of the Gaviota Coast.

The Naples Coalition believes that the TDR program can and should play a central role in preserving the rural character of Naples. Although other sources of funding will also likely be required, the County’s TDR program needs to be as robust and effective as possible to generate the millions of dollars needed to preserve Naples. A draft study of the TDR program has been developed by consultants for the County, but this study has several fundamental flaws that render the program only partially effective, and so both the concerned public and the Naples Coalition (which includes liaison to the seven community nonprofit organizations listed below) are asking the County to strengthen the Naples TDR program.

A TDR program at Naples would remove development from the “sending site” -- Naples, and transfer it to a “receiving site” -- which are appropriately identified urban areas in the County. Successful TDR programs across the country allow increased development opportunity in the receiving sites, and thus greater financial returns. A portion of the enhanced return realized by the receiving site will be used to retire development rights at Naples.

There is no “one size fits all” TDR program, since local objectives, opportunities and needs are highly variable. Given the magnitude of potential development at Naples, the high land values in Santa Barbara, and the uncertainties associated with any development proposal, the TDR program must generate sufficient funds to satisfy the developer’s reasonable needs, but not constitute a ‘give-away’ or involve inflated prices that will cause the TDR program to lose support in the community and appear unattractive for other funding sources. It must be effective at actually saving a meaningful amount of the Gaviota Coast, so residents in receiving site areas will receive clear benefits from participating in the program.

The brief history and current status of the TDR initiative is as follows:

1. A study on the feasibility of creating a viable TDR program for the Naples property was completed by the county, finding that the transfer of development from Naples is at least partially feasible. The Planning Commission forwarded this TDR program, complete with several fundamental flaws which weaken its effectiveness, to the Supervisors with a recommendation to adopt a TDR ordinance in some form.
2. The Board of Supervisors consequently voted on February 5, 2008 to initiate a program for transferring development rights (TDR) from the proposed housing project at the Naples property on the Gaviota Coast to appropriate urban areas under county jurisdiction as well as municipalities in the South Coast that voluntarily elect to participate in the program.

The Naples Coalition has crafted a detailed protocol which addresses the inherent weaknesses in the current TDR initiative. This protocol calls for a fair and effective TDR program that requires the owner’s participation, respects the owner’s economic interest, establishes economic benchmarks to measure the program’s performance, and allows for sufficient time for program to operate successfully. A TDR program with these characteristics is the best hope of preserving the rural character of the Naples property.

To this end, the Naples Coalition proposes that the Planning Commission should:

• Expand the scope of the TDR program to include all development in the unincorporated portions of the County, including upzones and rezones in both the coastal zone and inland areas.
• Revise the TDR Program as proposed by the Naples Coalition. The Naples Coalition TDR Program will be much more effective and is fair to the landowner, provides increased certainty to the program, and better meets the requirements of the Local Coastal Plan.
• Encourage cities to voluntarily participate in TDR, as the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta have done. Tell the Planning Commission that you expect other cities will join once the TDR Program is adopted and shows success.
• Expect that communities will see the benefits of the TDR program. Commissioners have said that no community will accept increased development, even if it will help save Naples. While this is not true (witness the interest of Santa Barbara and Goleta in the program) the staff draft of the TDR Program has an “amenity fund” to incentivize communities to participate in the TDR program. Everyone in the County benefits from saving Naples.
• Bluff lots are the highest priority for preservation. Our community has consistently demonstrated this fact in the successful campaigns to preserve the Carpinteria Bluffs, Douglas Family Preserve, and Ellwood Mesa.
• Don’t use TDR on development that is otherwise prohibited by coastal policies. TDR should only be applied to those parcels that survive strict application of existing coastal and land use policies.

The development at Naples, at the eastern gateway to the Gaviota Coast, is the most complex project being considered in Santa Barbara County. This project threatens to destroy the longstanding efforts of local landowners, concerned citizens, and NGOs, to maintain the working rural landscape of the Gaviota Coast.

If Naples is developed unchecked and as proposed it will:

· Import a suburban development onto the officially recognized rural Gaviota Coast,

· Fragment historically productive ranch lands,

· Negatively impact the economical viability of surrounding agricultural lands,

· Introduce urban services onto rural lands,

· Invade protected public viewsheds,

· Establish precedents for the future urbanization of the Gaviota Coast,

· Conflict with numerous county policies.

About The Naples Coalition:

The Naples Coalition is a Santa Barbara County, CA-based public benefit corporation with representation by local non-profit groups including the Citizens Planning Association of Santa Barbara County, Gaviota Coast Conservancy, League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara County, Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club, Santa Barbara Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, Santa Barbara Chapter of the Audubon Society and Santa Barbara Community Action Network. The Naples Coalition is dedicated to the preservation of the rural character of the Naples property on the Gaviota coast. Specifically, the Naples Coalition is responding to Vintage Communities, an Orange County development company that purchased the Naples town site lots and has an application pending with the County of Santa Barbara to build up to 72 large luxury houses on the rural Naples property. The Naples Coalition seeks to preserve the rural character of the Naples area from this development’s impacts.

Visit the Naples Coalition website at www.savenaples.org