Solar Energy

[ Excerpt from SBN-P Opinion of August 27, 2006 ]

More South Coast residents are becoming enamored with solar power. The outlook ahead is sunny.

Credit Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for playing a big role in getting Californians to think about installing solar panels on their homes and businesses. He's been championing a campaign to put these panels on a million rooftops in California over the next decade.

As the governor recently told reporters, this not only will reduce the use of fossil fuels, but "it is clean energy, which means there will be a reduction in greenhouse gas that will be going into the atmosphere by three million tons."

Mr. Schwarzenegger last week signed a bill that aims to build on the state government's $3 billion program to subsidize solar energy. Provisions include tax credits and, for businesses, other incentives, such as increasing the rate of depreciation on equipment.

There's reason not to delay: The subsidies diminish as more people put panels on their roofs.

In Santa Barbara, in the past, property owners grew frustrated by the impediments to installation of panels. Some reports say this is getting easier after community and media pressure...

Residents still are waiting to see whether the city staff's much-ballyhooed new "green team" -- charged with looking at environmental policies -- is effective.

On solar power, the approval process apparently has improved. Planning commissioners in 2003 denied the use of some solar panels for a building on Anacapa Street. The Community Environmental Council had to write to Mayor Marty Blum that, "Denial of photovoltaic systems based on aesthetic issues alone seems counterproductive to the need to develop alternative sources of energy in our community."

Since then, the City Council agreed to join in the Million Solar Roofs Partnership. The council, at the insistence of Councilwoman Iya Falcone, has looked favorably on the Santa Barbara Contractors Association's "Built Green" program.

But there have been missteps, too.

During the discussion on the Million Solar Roofs Partnership, residents heard vows to put panels on the roof of the downtown library. The talk went nowhere as the administration came up with excuses about why the city couldn't immediately do it. Instead, the city decided to pursue putting panels on a more out-of-the-way fire station as it looks at other solar options.

Another wasted opportunity to build green was the Granada Garage.

Over the years before the city broke ground on this $25 million to $30 million project, council members Dr. Dan Secord and Das Williams raised the idea of putting solar panels on the garage's roof. They went unheard.

No Poison Spray

[ Excerpt from SBN-P article August 23, 2006 by Vladimir Kogan: ]

City leaders have promised to send a letter to state regulators calling on them to halt the application of a potentially toxic pesticide in Santa Barbara and are considering taking legal action to block the California Department of Food and Agriculture from moving forward with its program to eradicate the Oriental fruit fly...

The vote came after several residents complained of falling ill after coming in contact with the pesticide during its initial application earlier this month, and several dozen more came to the council Tuesday to call on the city to take action.

"It appears that the threat to public health has been overlooked," Councilman Das Williams said during the meeting.

Mr. Williams, along with the other five council members present, has argued that the city did not receive adequate notice before state staff began squirting trees in the area, part of an effort to kill the insect they fear threatens local crops.

"It's more than important; it's a health issue," said Estelle Foster, executive director of the Pesticide Awareness and Alternative Coalition. "I really ask you to take a stand on this -- a loud, vociferous stand."

... The citizens' concerns were echoed by the council, with several expressing worry over two other Naled applications scheduled for this month.

"I don't think we worked this hard in the city of Santa Barbara to make sure we do these things in the least harmful way just to see another jurisdiction come in and do this," Councilwoman Iya Falcone said.

However, City Attorney Steven Wiley warned that there may be little Santa Barbara can do.

"I suspect this is an area of state pre-emption," he said.

e-mail: vkogan@newspress.com

Poison Spraying

[ Excerpt from SBN-P opinion piece of August 22, 2006: ]

Our Opinion: 'Please don't spray us!'


... California Department of Food and Agriculture officials have... swooped onto the South Coast to spray chemicals to kill Oriental fruit flies. Three of the insects turned up in traps in late July...

Residents have complained -- and rightly so -- about the lack of notice about the spraying. The state intends to spray until late September, and there's no excuse for not doing a better job of alerting people about the application of a pesticide known as Naled.

The sprayings, according to some residents, also have been inconsistent with some areas in their view being overloaded with the chemical.

Here's how a state document described the eradication plan:

"A minimum of 600 evenly spaced bait stations of Naled/methyl eugenol mixture will be applied to utility poles, street trees, etc., in each square mile within eradication boundaries . . . A total of eight square miles will be treated. Treatments will be repeated at two-week intervals for two life cycles beyond the last fly find . . . If larvae of mated females are found on a property, the foliage of host plants on the infested and adjacent properties will be treated with protein bait sprays."

The state government, under the watch of county monitors, began this large-scale spraying program without first using less-toxic or natural alternatives.

In a letter to state officials, Goleta school board member Susan Epstein points out that her district is pesticide-free and "we have found that in every case a less-toxic alternative to chemical pesticides was available to eradicate pests, and was actually more effective. . . . I find it very disturbing that the state would choose to apply a pesticide with little to no notice to residents when the local residents would not take care of their land and environment in that manner."

Elected officials, such as Ms. Epstein and Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, have been in the forefront of raising concerns. But much of the area the state is spraying is in the unincorporated area of the county...

Santa Barbara News-Press

Limiting Size of Remodels

[ Excerpt from SBN-P article August 9, 2006 by Vladimir Kogan. ]


The Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night in favor of proposed regulations to limit the size of remodeled homes on lots smaller than 15,000 square feet.

The vote came after a grueling five-hour meeting during which more than 50 residents offered their own passionate appeals, most opposing the regulations.

It marked the latest chapter in the city's years-long effort to find a compromise on the divisive issue of protecting property rights while attempting to preserve Santa Barbara's architectural style. As part of the process, city leaders have attempted to satisfy critics of new development, who say their neighborhoods are being turned upside down by the construction of "mansions," and young families with kids who have argued that stringent regulations would force them to leave town.

"You will have to decide whether the status quo is not working to preserve the special character of Santa Barbara," Dianne Channing, a member of the steering committee that worked to draft the regulations, told the council before the vote. "I think it will take courage today to do what should have been done 15 years ago."

However, Ms. Channing was in the minority, with most speakers opposing the introduction of mandatory "floor-to-lot area ratios," or FARs, limiting the size of multistory houses to a percentage of the area of their lots.

Though city planners have built consensus over some proposed updates to Santa Barbara's Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, including a plan to require all second-story additions to undergo review by the Architectural Board of Review and a supermajority of the board for waiving maximum-size guidelines, they have faced stark oppositions to the introduction of mandatory FARs...

The plan greenlighted by the council includes FARs that would limit a home built on a 6,000-square-foot lot to an area of 2,700 square feet, including a garage. While proponents said that is enough to build a house with six bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, critics, who include some homeowners and local Realtors, warned that it would drive families with kids to look for housing elsewhere...

The main questions in front of City Council on Tuesday night was whether the FARs should be made into objective regulations or subjective guidelines during a three-year trial period. At the end, the council opted for regulations, though it agreed to allow projects exceeding the limits to receive special modifications from the city's Planning Commission.

"I believe we should have FAR standards and regulations," said Councilman Das Williams, echoing the sentiment of the rest of the council. "Otherwise, they're worthless."

Santa Barbara is not the only city that has struggled to limit growth fueled by record housing prices -- and faced an angry political response, according to community planning experts.

"(Such regulations) are fairly common in hot markets where the housing has gotten extremely large for the lots and, of course, in neighborhoods where tear-downs are a threat," said Lane Kendig, president of the Kendig Kiest Collaborative, an urban-planning consultancy. "Once tear-downs start, you have a very, very difficult political situation, because often times you can't get any unanimity in the neighborhood. And that's simply because land values are so high."

Mr. Kendig says his firm prefers regulations that limit total volume of properties, arguing that area limits perversely encouragage homeowners to build taller homes, with higher ceilings.

"If you stick with floor area, what we find is that people end up with very exotic definitions of how you measure area," he said.

e-mail: vkogan@newspress.com


Santa Barbara News-Press

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NOTE from Malcolm: During the long meeting, to underscore the nature of guidelines being easily broken, Das brought up the classic PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN exchange talking about the Pirates Rules being just "guidelines." David Pritchett quoted the movie in his comment at THE DAILY SOUND:

David Pritchett says:
August 9, 2006 at 8:27 pm
"To help City Councilmember Helene Schneider with this metaphor, as from the 2003 film Pirates of the Carribean:"

Barbossa: “First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement, so I must do nothin’. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the Pirate’s Code to apply, and you’re not. And thirdly, the Code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner.”

David Pritchett says:
August 9, 2006 at 8:52 pm
"Of course, one would have to be awake and paying attention during the fourth hour of the City Council hearing even to understand that Pirates Guidelines reference above."

DAILY SOUND

School Buses 2go Biodiesel?

[ Excerpt from SBN-P article of August 9, 2006 by Rob Kuznia. ]

SCHOOL BOARD CONSIDERS SWITCHING ITS FLEET OF BUSES TO BIODIESEL FUEL


The Santa Barbara school board may follow the lead of the City Council...

If the board gives the green light, the local school system would be among the first in California to fill its 70 buses with biodiesel fuel, which is made up of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent virgin soybean oil...

The drive is backed by Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, who appeared at a school board meeting last month to advocate the option. In June, the City Council voted to convert the city's fleet of 150 vehicles to biodiesel.

"It's not like it's just the school district employees who would breathe easier if the district makes this change," Mr. Williams said. "It's their children, it's the district employees, and it's all the residents of the city and county."

The danger of diesel to kids in school buses is well documented.

In 2001, the Natural Resources Defence Council produced a study titled "No Breathing in the Aisles," which found that diesel buses expose children to up to 46 times the levels of toxins considered "significant" by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Of particular concern are particulates, or airborne soot particles, in the diesel exhaust which are small enough to reach the lungs...

According to the National Biodiesel Board, which keeps tabs on biodiesel-using school districts across the country, just one other school district has done it in California: Oakland Unified. But across the United States, about 200 public school districts have made the switch, said agency spokeswoman Amber Thurlo Pearson.

Biodiesel comes in two grades. B-20 is a mix of 80 percent petroleum diesel fuel and 20 percent biodiesel; B-100 is 100 percent biodiesel.

Since July 1, the city of Santa Barbara has been pumping the B-20 mixture into its street sweepers, fire trucks, beach-cleaning tractors and other large vehicles...

Councilman Williams is also pressing the Metropolitan Transit District to convert its buses to corn oil or B-20. The district, he said, seems interested...

No vehicle retrofits are necessary for the B-20 switch, though they would be if the schools went with B-100. Also, the extra cost of the biodiesel fuel is minimal.

Al Sauvadon, vice president of Student Transportation of America, estimates the annual cost to be $13,000 -- a paltry portion of the K-12 school system's $100 million-plus budget.

The real trick, he said, is finding a pump. As it is, there is just one available to the school district -- at the Goleta station of McCormix Corp., Mr. Sauvadon said. This means buses would have to line up and wait for fuel, potentially at the expense of timely departures.

Running a well-oiled operation, he said, would require at least four pumps.

Meanwhile, Mr. Williams is trying to smooth out this and other bumps. He hopes to arrange a deal where the schools buy the fuel from the city, which gets a special tax-free rate not enjoyed by school districts.

In addition to providing cheaper fuel, the arrangement would allow the school buses to use the city's fill-up station on Laguna Street.

Of course, Mr. Williams cannot do anything about the increased smog -- also known as ozone.

While the B-20 blend reduces emissions of poisonous particulates by 18 percent, it actually increases emissions of smog-producing nitrous oxides by 1.2 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The B-100 option increases them by 5.8 percent.

Terry Dressler, director of the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, said the trade-off is worth it.

"There is a level of ozone in the air that's safe to breathe," said Mr. Dressler, whose agency nonetheless generally encourages schools to purchase new school buses or upgrade equipment rather than switch to biodiesel. "It doesn't look like it will impact the air quality as badly as it might someplace else."

The school district's interest in biodiesel comes amid statewide efforts to clean up diesel emissions.

Last spring, the Legislature set aside $25 million to replace or retrofit hundreds of outmoded school buses across the state.

And California refineries must fill all diesel containers with an ultra-low-sulphur grade by Sept. 1. Many local vehicles have already been using it...

McCormix's Goleta station sells B-20 biodiesel for $3.49 a gallon, compared to $3.29 for regular diesel. B-100 goes for $3.79 a gallon.

McCormix General Manager Steve Olsen said more and more environmentally conscious customers are putting biodiesel fuel in their Volvos, Volkswagens and pickups...

e-mail: rkuznia@newspress.com


Santa Barbara News-Press

Gentrification Showdown

[ Excerpt from SB Independent article of July 27, 2006 by Nick Welsh ]

Tenants Lost Gentrification Showdown
Council Approves Condos, Promises New Rental Protections


Despite tearful entreaties by tenants to save their moderately priced homes from demolition at an older 10-unit apartment complex on north La Cumbre Road, members of the Santa Barbara City Council denied their appeal and approved plans — by a vote of 4-1 — to replace the apartments with eight new condominiums, which will sell from $700,000 to $850,000, plus one affordable unit priced at $216,000...

... Despite the concern all councilmembers expressed at the imminent loss of affordable rental housing, four of the five present argued it would be unfair to break new policy ground on the backs of developers Richard and Ryan Richards, who have played by the rules and offered more than city guidelines require in the way of tenant relocation assistance and the provision of one affordable unit. Buttressing the council majority’s concern about fair play was a conviction that if they ruled in favor of the 30 tenants — as well as affordable housing advocate Mickey Flacks of SBCAN and PUEBLO — the developers would sue City Hall and almost certainly prevail.

Flacks cited chapter and verse from the city’s general plan and housing policies that definitively frown on replacing modestly priced rentals with more expensive condos. Councilmember Das Williams embraced this argument and came up with one of his own: He argued it was hypocritical and unfair to ask an unwilling public to accommodate the increased densities necessary to achieve affordable housing, while simultaneously allowing developers to tear down existing affordable rentals and replace them with upscale condos. While some councilmembers may have been sympathetic to Williams’s arguments, he was ultimately alone in his vote against the demolition.

The other councilmembers cited state law and court precedent that makes it illegal for municipalities to require landlords to stay in the rental property business against their will. The evening saw much hand-wringing about the glaring insufficiency of current city policies to stem the conversion of apartments to condos, and much talk of reforms to be enacted at a later date. In the meantime, however, Councilmember Grant House managed to secure an agreement from the developers to double the amount of relocation assistance they initially offered, increasing it from one-to-three months’ rent to two-to-six months’.

The Santa Barbara Independent :: news :: Tenants Lost Gentrification Showdown