••• “Members of the Chumash tribe are calling on Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Department to turn a long vacant lot next to the harbor into a space dedicated to their culture, practices and ancestral land. The West Beach Wading Pool, first constructed in 1939, has been closed since 2014 due to a major leak. Currently, its shell sits vacant next to the Los Baños del Mar swimming pool. In 2018, the parks and recreation department initiated plans to turn the empty wading pool into a children’s splash playground, but the progress was halted during the Covid-19 pandemic.” This would be in addition to the conversion of nearby Ambassador Park into a Chumash monument. —Santa Barbara News-Press
••• “The Santa Ynez Band of the Chumash has initiated the process of taking a 360-acre piece of land adjacent to Chumash Casino Resort [in Santa Ynez] into ‘federal trust status.’ This opaque designation essentially grants the tribe carte blanche to do whatever they want with the land by Highway 154 and Meadowlark Road—now used for passive grazing and occasional special events such as the most recent Intertribal Powwow—unencumbered by local land-use restrictions or considerations. […] Under the tribe’s existing compact with the state, it is legally entitled to develop two gaming facilities, not just the one it currently operates.” —Independent
••• The Santa Barbara Rental Property Association is gathering petition signatures to have Santa Barbara’s new rent-control policy put to a public vote. —Noozhawk
••• “Hilda Maldonado to resign as Santa Barbara Unified School District Superintendent at end of June. During her time as superintendent, dozens of cabinet members and staffers fled the organization, taking other jobs or early retirement.” —Santa Barbara News-Press
••• “Earl Warren Showgrounds confirms no data center will be built [….] The Showgrounds released a press release saying that the board of directors will not consider a data center on the property.” —Santa Barbara News-Press
••• “Four appeals filed against the proposed Surfliner Inn will send the controversial downtown hotel project back before the Carpinteria City Council, where elected officials will reconsider the development, its environmental review and the Planning Commission’s recent approval.” Losing gracefully sure is a lost art. —Coastal View News
••• “The California Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Barbara will close for three months for renovations at the end of this week.” —Noozhawk
••• Noozhawk explains why the Montecito Association has been so worked up about “proposed amendments to simplify Santa Barbara County’s development review process […] would streamline and downshift permit requirements.”
••• “After nearly four decades, Casitas Cleaners in Carpinteria will close for good at the end of October.” —Noozhawk
••• “New Regulated Ocean Zones in State Waters include Nine Acres off Carpinteria [….] With its creation, extractive uses—such as drilling and trawling—will be prohibited. The goal is to protect and study the marine life that live there while honoring Chumash stewardship and heritage, according to the petitioners. Recreational fishing from shore and tribal take by Chumash people will still be allowed, as well as recreational uses such as surfing and diving.” —Independent
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