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Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Revisit Naples/Gaviota Coast Decision from Lame Duck Board

1/31/2009 from the Gaviota Coast Conservancy
http://gaviotacoastconservancy.org/

Supervisors agree to "cure" their Brown Act violation regarding their amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing the processing of the Naples Development.

The Brown Act simply states that, with the exception of several narrow circumstances, the community's business must be conducted in public.

On October 7, 2008, the County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in closed session to amend the MOU governing the Naples development on the Gaviota Coast. This amendment to the MOU enabled the developer to split the project between coastal and non-coastal portions.

The Naples Coalition and Environmental Defense Center petitioned the new Board of Supervisors to recognize their error and allow the public to participate in the debate on this issue. Hearing the issues of the amendment in public is a fundamental democratic right that the "Firestone Board" overrode.

The new Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in closed session January 27, 2009 to publicly reconsider their amendment to the MOU adopted in the closed door session of October 7, 2008. This controversial amendment would have allowed the Naples development to be split into two parts and developed separately.

The new Board's decision is a very welcome first step in unraveling the "Naples mistake" of last year. This is a chance to keep the Naples project as a whole before the Coastal Commission.

For more information, contact Janet Koed at

(805) 683-6631