P.O. Box 6737
Santa Barbara, CA 93160
www.SantaBarbaraAudubon.org
City Clerk [email protected]
City of Goleta
February 6, 2023
Re: Please Deny February 7 City Council Meeting Agenda Item B.1, Goleta Valley Historical Society lease modification request
Dear Mayor, City Council Members, and City Staff,
Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) is a chapter of the National Audubon Society with approximately 1100 members in the Santa Barbara and Goleta area. The mission of SBAS is to protect area birdlife and habitat and connect people with birds through education, conservation, and science. Our members, many of whom reside in Goleta, frequently use the parks, natural areas, and open spaces in and around the City of Goleta for recreational and outreach activities.
We are writing today in regards to Item B.1, which involves a request by the Goleta Valley Historical Society (GVHS) for a modification of its lease in order to hold nighttime events. This modification would allow for evening (6 – 10 pm) private events (e.g., wedding, receptions, birthday parties) of 50 – 300 people up to six times per year. This would entail special lighting and parking arrangements and would inevitably create human and vehicle noise and disturbances in and around the Stow House grounds and adjoining Lake Los Carneros open space. Although the guest activity would cease by 10 pm, the related clean-up and take-down of large events, and the noise from such activities, could last for another hour or longer.
SBAS is aware of and has documented the substantial year-round bird activity at Lake Los Carneros and the Stow House vicinity, including many breeding records (most notably, recent-years nesting of White-tailed Kites, Red- shouldered Hawks, and Coopers Hawks), as well as roosting Barn Owls. Our supporters frequent this area in large part due to the high number of birds that can be found around the Stow House, especially during breeding and migration seasons. White-tailed kites have nested five out of the past seven years in the large Norfolk Pine immediately adjacent to the Stow House.
Currently, the park is closed after sunset. Permitted activities at Stow (and at the neighboring Railroad Museum) must cease by sunset, as detailed in their leases. Consequently, the city property around Stow House and the park are one of few large undeveloped areas within the Goleta Valley where nocturnal animals can live their lives undisturbed in an environment free of light pollution. Regardless of the findings of the CEQA analysis, there is no doubt that additional human activity, with artificial lighting after sunset, will cause additional disturbance to individual birds and other wildlife, including moths, small mammals and bats. The Goleta South Coast and Lake Los Carneros has been recognized on the international level as an Audubon Important Bird Area that both supports sensitive breeding birds and is along the Pacific Flyway migration route. The nighttime hours during spring and fall migration periods (April/May and September/October) are especially critical for our birds. We do not need more outdoor lighting during this time, especially in an area that has been kept historically dark. In 2021, the City replaced thousands of street lamps and a key element of those lamps (in addition to energy efficiency) was the downward-facing beams and the ability to have the heads shielded to reduce or eliminate light trespass to 1 environmentally sensitive areas. SBAS was a strong advocate for reducing the wattage, color temperature, and for shielding these new lamps, and we are satisfied that the City shares an Audubon Society goal of reducing unnecessary night at light. From this perspective, we are strongly opposed to any change that brings night-time lighting to Lake Los Carneros and the grounds around the Stow House.
SBAS recognizes the importance of a healthy population of raptors and owls that provide natural pest control.
Night-time lighting reduces the ability of our nocturnal birds to forage for prey, including pest species such as rats. SBAS is highly concerned with the rampant use of rodenticides and the secondary wildlife poisonings they cause. Our community should be doing everything we can to foster a healthier environment for our predator species rather than harming them with light pollution. And, outdoor events around Stow House will undoubtedly increase the perceived need for additional rodent control. We are already concerned about existing bait boxes that are placed around the Stow House, directly adjacent to trees home to small rodent-eating raptors.
We are further concerned that modifying the GVHS lease to include night-time events would violate the Open Space provisions within the General Plan. Section OS 7.5b (Open Space for Outdoor Recreation) states that:
“Lake Los Carneros Natural and Historic Preserve shall be managed primarily as a passive preserve, with low intensity activities allowed near the Stow House, the historic farm buildings, and the historic Goleta Train Depot and South Coast Railroad Museum.” In addition, OS 6.7d (Regional Open Space) states “Typical facilities provided in regional open space areas are designed to be primarily passive in character, although historical and special purpose attractions may be included. The primary purpose of these areas is to protect their open space and natural values and passive recreation shall be managed in a way that does not conflict with these values, while still providing appropriate public access”. Private outdoor events with lighting and amplified music do not protect open space and natural values; they are not public access; nor are they passive recreation. They provide no benefit to the public that uses the park during the daytime, and definitely do not provide any benefit to the birds and other animals that call the park home.
In further support of not modifying the lease agreement, General Plan Section OS 6.10 (Design and Management of Public Parks and Open Space) states that “The City should ensure that park, recreation, and open space facilities are designed and managed in a manner that is consistent with protection of the ecology of the natural systems at each park site and that will serve the needs of the intended user groups” (emphasis added). SBAS believes that holding outdoor night-time events at Stow House runs counter to OS 6.10.
We respectfully ask that the City act in support of its own General Plan and deny the GVHS request. This will serve to maintain the character of this Open Space as protected by the General Plan. By denying the request and keeping events to daytime-use only, light pollution and additional human activity at the park until 11pm or later will be avoided, and thus avoid risk of disturbance to birds and resident wildlife. And, most importantly, the City will not run the risk of creating a precedent of eroding protections for its other parks and open spaces.
Thank you for the chance to comment on what could critically undermine the General Plan Open Space provisions.
Sincerely,
Katherine Emery, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Santa Barbara Audubon Society
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