Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
The Carpinteria community came together to vocally opposed a proposed “Farm & Hospitality Experience” on Carpinteria’s bluffs.
The City of Carpinteria held a special public meeting on March 30 with the Carpinteria City Council, Planning Commission, and Architectural Review Board to review a new conceptual development project at 5885 Carpinteria Avenue.
The applicant for the self-titled “Carpinteria Farm & Hospitality Experience” is Carp Bluff, LLC., owned by Matthew Goodwin with Laurel Fisher-Perez of Suzanne Elledge Planning and Permitting Services as the principal planner.
Their proposed project is described as a regenerative farm, boutique hotel, residential units, restaurant, and other community-facing amenities on 28 acres between Carpinteria Ave and the Pacific Ocean. It would be separated at the southern edge by the existing railroad line.
The project states that 7 acres will be used as organic farmland to supply the onsite restaurant, farmstand, and hotel. An event space with a 200-person capacity will be used for community and hotel events. The hotel will include 99 rooms comprised of lodges, bungalows, and cabins as well as other amenities including a library, spa, mini theatre, gym, pool, and more. There will be 16 “workforce housing units” averaging 650 sf. each, a 5,590 sf. restaurant and bar, 6,000 sf. farm barn, and 4,100 sf. of flexible multi-purpose area.
Site Plan Concept (courtesy photo)
“Now, more than ever, we have become out of touch with the very things that feed our soul; nature, connectivity, community. This concept is a cultivation of these life forces… It is our goal that this project can serve as an example of truly sustainable development; one that creates a symbiotic relationship between environment, community and economy and lives lightly on the land,” the Carp Bluff concept review presentation states.
This stretch of bluffs has been privately owned for decades but is commonly used by locals to access the Seal Rookery. The developer proposed a 20-foot-wide, public multi-use trail, connected to Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve trails and a second public harbor seal outlook, as well as public access to park on their property.
The special meeting drew a standing-room-only crowd who vocally opposed the development that spilled into more condemnation in online forums.
“I hope developers realize most Carpinterians don’t want any hotels of any kind being built. We are full. Redo the Palms. Redo Michael’s to the old omwegs and that’s about it,” one commenter posted in a Carpinteria Facebook group.
“I hope it doesn’t get approved, we have to protect our open sanctuaries,” another resident commented.
“Honestly, if you like this development idea why not just move to the OC? You can have your curated walk to the beach there. Leave Carp Country,” posted another.
A formal application is a next step for the developer followed by several reviews from the City of Carpinteri and the California Coastal Commission.
(courtesy photo)
Carpinteria should be careful. The city of Santa Barbara recently lost a lawsuit and had to pay the owner of an oceanside property for the value of his land because they refused to allow him to build on it. The adjacent parcel to the property in carpinteria, conveniently cropped out of the aerial view in this article, is heavily developed with commercial buildings and oil infrastructure. If the city of carp is going to take the rights to build on the subject parcel, I expect they will have to pay substantial compensation. Can the city afford it?
The Carpinteria community can’t afford to lose public access or viewpoints to all that open space forever to an elitist “farm and hospitality experience”. A telling point during public comments was that the developers already operate a small hotel in town with wonderful restaurant but no one except registered guests can dine there.
I’m so torn on this one. Of all the things that could go there, it seems like the least bad option. But I am also just so tired of the development of every last place and the creation of more playgrounds for the ultra rich. The idea that “community” events – beyond birthdays and weddings for wealthy Montecitoans, or lavish PR events for bored housewives’ vanity project businesses – will be taking place there is laughable. Yeah, the $375 lunch tasting menu will be a hub for all of us locals.
Right on Carp citizens. Good for you. G-d damn, it’s about time someone stopped this kind of development. Did you read the bs in the article about some sort of “connectivity, life forces, sustainability, symbiotic., blah blah…”.? You gotta be fricking kidding.
If only SB and Goleta citizens and leaders had a similar attitude. Props to all who stepped up and showed their disdain for this. “We’re full”, they said. Does that resonate with anyone else? I get it.
“I hope it doesn’t get approved, we have to protect our open sanctuaries,”
This is private land
Right now the only things that get approved in Carpinteria are Cannabis farms. Farms polute our environment, don’t pay fair wages and add nothing to the town. They just take. And when a ligit business that will add jobs and revenue to our town it’s pushed out by brain dead surfers. Carp will die if it has a bunch of burnt out buildings on Linden, stinks of cannabis and doesn’t support the concepts of capitalism.
Stop the farms. Build up Linden. Build a Carp for the next generation.
5885 carp ave is zoned commercial. Looks like it’s valued at $13 million. The owner has a right to develop the property. If the proposed project meets the rules, the owner has every right to build it. The only legitimate way to prevent the development would be to work out a deal to with the owner, such as buying the property.
I reside in the City of Santa Barbara, and I say a “Bigly NO” to build a hotel on the Carpinteria Bluffs.
Too many are being proposed to build hotel projects here in SB. Just right down ridiculous. It’s all about the money in our local cities with our local elected officials and with the developers.
Think Carpenteria needs a lot of such changes. Progress!!
Other cities bull doze the old ancient neighborhoods and build mega apts for seniors. A win-win? City planning 101.
And once a nutty group stopped an old ranch house located at a busy intersection from getting remodeled and becoming a 5 star french restaurant. they not want a wine bar or business there. so it got blocked. Within 5 years it became a McDonalds. With a CVS across the road.
Or Carpenteria needs to consider the alternatives.
Or this project looks like an improvement. They probably have a desalting water plant in the basement? ie a still. and there must be lots of water to support all of the
flower growing over the years. Need to dig some wells up in the hills.