••• The 680-unit housing development at the north end of La Cumbre Plaza, where Macy’s is, made it through the Architectural Board of Review’s design-review process. —Santa Barbara News-Press (rendering courtesy Cearnal Collective)
••• The Santa Barbara Half Marathon made national news after dozens of runners experienced illness and hallucinations, sparking rumors of tainted water stations. Several described their symptoms to the Santa Barbara News-Press; the county insists the reactions must be related to the heat, even though several runners mentioned having trained during the recent heat wave.
••• Election results are still up in the air. —Noozhawk
••• “Cannabis lawsuits, odor complaints drag on in the Carpinteria Valley [….] Residents blame cheap odor-control technology for the lingering smell of greenhouse pot.” —Santa Barbara News-Press
••• “Monument Proposed for Old Town Goleta Roundabout Draws Mixed Reviews [.…] The Design Review Board and the community weigh in on three concepts as well as the project overall.” They’re all pretty mundane—and even if they weren’t, are they the best way to spend anywhere from $400,000 to $1.3 million? —Noozhawk
••• “A ribbon cutting ceremony is set for the Goleta Train Station at 27 S. La Patera on December 16.” —Edhat
••• “The University of California’s investment arm has bought the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay for $193 million, adding to its $236 billion investment portfolio, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. […] UC Investments declined to comment on the sale and what it plans to do with the property. […] The sale of the Ritz-Carlton comes after a series of recent real estate acquisitions by the UC, including at least 15 commercial properties in Westwood Village” and of course the former QAD campus in Summerland. —Daily Bruin
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Cannabis, weed, marijuana, bud, what ever you want to call it is over invested with a shrinking market. The hard fact is that most of these farms will likely be out of business in the next year or two. Adding more costs and challenges to an already struggling market will certainly result in closures. Carp will lose its gift horses and those greenhouses will sit empty as flowers and fruit are no longer profitable to grow in So Cal. Look no further than the recent closure of strawberry farms in Ventura Co for a glimpse of the future of south coast agriculture.
Be careful what you wish for Carp. In a couple of years you may find yourselves surrounded by fungus growers or maybe a rendering factory or even a data center or two. The smell of rotten flesh, fruit or fungus will make certainly make one gag more than a whiff of weed. Most likely though, developers will want to build condos and hotels and will spend millions in order to do so.
My prediction is that weed farms will leave and Carp residents will be fighting developers for years. Instead of some skunk smell they’ll have deteriorating greenhouses, zero tax revenue and city run lawsuits that drain their coffers to zero.