Recent Comments

Below is my letter to the Mayor and City Council. Please contact the city opposing this awful project: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Dear Mayor Rowse and Members of the Santa Barbara City Council, I am writing as a nine-year resident of the West Beach neighborhood to strongly urge the City Council to pause and reconsider the current direction of the proposed Chumash Cultural Project at Ambassador Park.I understand there is a public meeting/open house on June 17. I will be out of the country on that date; otherwise, I would attend in person. Please take this letter as my official public input and formal comment on the project.Ambassador Park is the only true green neighborhood gathering space in our immediate area. My family and neighbors use it every day, often multiple times a day. It is where children play, neighbors meet, people sit in the sun, families picnic, dogs play, and residents and visitors enjoy a rare patch of open grass in a dense waterfront neighborhood. It is not just a pass-through to the beach. For those of us who live here, it is part of our daily life.I support honoring Chumash culture and the historic importance of Syuxtun. That history should be recognized with care and respect. But honoring history should not require removing or greatly diminishing the current living function of the park. The City should be able to honor Chumash heritage while preserving the open green space that current residents depend on.Our request is not simply to adjust the current design. We want Ambassador Park to remain untouched as open neighborhood green space, and we ask the City to move this project to the area by the Moreton Bay Fig Tree. That location makes much more sense for a cultural and interpretive project. It is already a historic, highly visible, visitor-facing public space, and it would allow the City to honor Chumash heritage without sacrificing the only flexible green lawn that our neighborhood uses every day.The current proposal appears to move the park away from flexible neighborhood use and toward a more constructed, programmed, hardscaped cultural site. That may look appealing in renderings, but for residents it raises serious concerns. Where will children run? Where will neighbors gather casually? Where will people picnic or sit on the grass? How will this remain a simple, welcoming, daily-use park rather than a designed space people are meant to walk through and look at?I also have serious environmental concerns about disturbing the existing grounds and palm trees, which appear to serve as nesting grounds for Great Blue Herons. These birds are part of the living ecosystem of the park as it exists today. The project appears to assume Ambassador Park can be redesigned primarily as a cultural and landscape site, but it is already functioning as habitat. We are wondering whether any feasibility analysis, biological assessment, nesting-bird survey, or environmental review has been completed specifically addressing the Great Blue Herons, the palm trees, and the broader ecosystem currently supported by the park.This is not a minor issue. Most bird nests are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service states that it is illegal to destroy a nest with eggs or chicks in it, or if young birds are still dependent on the nest for survival.The City and project team chose this park in its current condition, with its open lawn, palm trees, birds, daily human use, and existing neighborhood ecosystem. That existing condition is exactly what we want protected. We do not want to disturb the ecosystem that has formed here. Before any redesign, construction, grading, tree work, landscaping changes, or increase in programmed activity is considered, the City should provide a clear public explanation of how nesting birds, palm-tree habitat, and current ecological conditions will be protected.I am especially concerned because the City’s maintenance record in this exact area does not inspire confidence. The Syuxtun Story Circle mosaic across the street has been damaged or neglected for a long time. The historic plaque at Ambassador Park has been stolen and not restored. The park itself is not even being consistently maintained at the level it deserves. Before the City adds more complex cultural installations, custom features, special landscaping, and interpretive elements, it should first prove that it can restore and maintain what already exists.The West Beach neighborhood has also lost or been deprived of other basic public amenities. The wading pool by Los Baños has been closed for far too long without a meaningful solution for local families. Now the City is considering transforming the only green space our neighborhood uses daily. From the perspective of residents, this feels like another decision that prioritizes planning concepts over the actual quality of life of local people.I respectfully ask the City Council to require the following before this project advances:Preserve Ambassador Park in its current open, flexible green-space function for local residents, children, families, neighbors, dogs, and everyday visitors.Direct staff to seriously study relocating the project to the area by the Moreton Bay Fig Tree.Require real neighborhood outreach specifically for residents who use the park regularly.Require a biological assessment, nesting-bird survey, and feasibility analysis addressing the Great Blue Herons, palm trees, nesting habitat, and current ecosystem of Ambassador Park.Prohibit any tree work, grading, construction, or landscape disturbance until the City has publicly disclosed how nesting birds and existing habitat will be protected.Study a less intrusive alternative that honors Chumash history through restored markers, interpretive signage, edge plantings, and cultural education without dismantling the open lawn or disturbing the park’s existing ecosystem.Require a funded long-term maintenance plan before approving any new cultural, landscape, or ecological features.Restore the existing Syuxtun mosaic and missing historical plaque before adding new interpretive elements.Ensure that any future design is judged not only by cultural intent, but also by whether it protects the daily life, access, open-space needs, and ecological integrity of the West Beach neighborhood.Please do not allow Ambassador Park to become another project where residents are asked for feedback after the direction has already been decided. We are one of the most active communities using this park, and the neighbors I have spoken with do not support the current direction. We are asking to be heard before the City makes an irreversible mistake.This park can honor Chumash history and still remain a living neighborhood lawn. Those goals do not have to be in conflict. But the current direction does not yet strike that balance.We are not asking for cosmetic revisions to the current plan. We are asking the City to preserve Ambassador Park as it is and relocate the proposed cultural project to a more appropriate location.Please pause the current plan, listen to the neighborhood, and require a design that protects Ambassador Park as both a culturally meaningful place and an essential everyday green space for local residents, everyday visitors, and the wildlife that already depends on this place. Sincerely,