Hoping to clear the waters about who has jurisdiction over a vacant ditch in Buellton that’s flooded in recent years’ storms, Mayor David Silva pressed staff to confirm whether it’s an issue the city should wash its hands of.
“It does seem a bit like what we’re being told is: We know there’s a problem, and somehow the city’s not able to solve it ourselves; the property owners are not able to solve it; and the people who are able are not prioritizing it?” Silva asked staff at the City Council’s Oct. 26 meeting. “Is that what I’m hearing? … At the end of the day, I think we all just want to solve the problem by any means necessary.”
He was referring to what public speaker John Dorwin described as a 100-yard parcel of overgrown vegetation in Zaca Creek. Neither the city nor Santa Barbara County have records of having completed flood mitigation work there, as part of El Niño preparations in recent months.
“The lessons of 2023 are being ignored,” Dorwin wrote in an Oct. 25 letter to the council. “This approximate 100-yard gap is a recurring flood control problem.”
Dorwin approached the public comment mic the following evening to reiterate his remarks.
“Action is required tonight by this council. What I’m proposing the council do is take a drive down Industrial Way, turn left when you get to the cul-de-sac, and walk to Zaca Creek,” Dorwin said. “There’s a very well-maintained trail there, and it crosses the creek. … Turn north, [and] you’re looking at a wall of vegetation over 6 feet tall, taller than I am, that goes the full 100-yard length.”
Dorwin alleged that a lack of maintenance at the vacant site—entitled for a future mixed-use development known as the Buellton Hub—caused it to flood during the January 2023 storm and resulted in at least $10,000 worth of property damage on surrounding properties, including a playground in town and a city-owned golf course. He sued the city over the issue in 2024.
Councilmember Hudson Hornick asked staff to elaborate on Dorwin’s claims during the Oct. 26 meeting.
“My family walks down to that area that Mr. Dorwin identified regularly, and there is a ton of vegetation out there,” Hornick said.
“That vegetation has developed there over quite the period of time,” City Manager Scott Wolfe replied. “We’ve had flooding there twice already, and if we have a higher rate of rainfall this year, it’s going to happen again, and it’s going to be worse.”
Wolfe told the council that some state laws, as he understood them, prevented both the city and the Buellton Hub property owner from clearing that vegetation.
“As I understand it, the only agency that has the authority to go in and do that—because they have some sort of authorization from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife—is the county flood control department,” Wolfe said. “The county flood control department is kind of the bottleneck here.
“Not pointing fingers of blame. I’m simply saying that they’re the ones with the authority to do it,” Wolfe continued. “There are things that our state has done that tie the city’s hands entirely. This appears to be one of those.”
‘It would make me very happy to be able to go in there and have that cleared out. … There are things that our state has done that tie the city’s hands entirely.’
—Scott Wolfe, Buellton city manager
If there was any way around that, Wolfe added, “it would make me very happy to be able to go in there and have that cleared out. I mean, it would solve problems for a whole slew of people and property owners. … It costs thousands of dollars to repair that golf course every time that happens. It’s something we would like to not have happen.”
According to Santa Barbara County, the Flood Control District maintained a quarter mile section of Zaca Creek this year as part of its El Niño preparations but did not have access to address the 100-yard ditch Buellton’s concerned about.
“We can explore options with the city and the property owner on how to address the channel,” Flood Control District Public Information Officer Lael Wageneck told the Sun via email. “We would need permission from the property owner to work in the section of the creek on their property.”
On Oct. 26, Buellton City Manager Wolfe told the council that in his “discussions with the property owner, he said he’d be willing to go in and do it himself if he thought he could do it without being fined or sued” by the state.
The day after the council meeting, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed state Executive Order N-14-26, which gives state and local agencies more flexibility to prepare for expected flooding, debris flows, landslides, and erosion as potential results of El Niño storms.
“In simple terms, it means permits are not required right now to do storm-preparedness channel maintenance work in the Zaca Creek area,” county spokesperson Wageneck said. “It temporarily lifts certain environmental rules so agencies can take protective actions more quickly.”
The Sun reached out to the city of Buellton for comment on Newsom’s Oct. 27 order but did not receive a response before press time.
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the governor’s recent decree allows either the city of Buellton or Santa Barbara County to move forward with mitigation efforts in the Zaca Creek parcel without state review, Deputy Director of Public Affairs Alicia de la Garza said via email.
Buellton resident Dorwin said he and his wife have shown up to at least a dozen City Council meetings over the past three years to talk about flooding in the 100-yard stretch.
“The story is different depending on who’s telling it,” the local attorney told the Sun.
One point he’s maintained is that the city should have used its stormwater ordinance to enforce maintenance at the ditch.
This piece of Buellton city code states that “every person or entity owning property through which a watercourse passes … shall keep and maintain that part of the watercourse within the property free of trash, debris, excessive vegetation, and other obstacles.”
“They’ve had three years to do something,” Dorwin said. “You’ve had since Jan. 9, 2023, to enforce your stormwater ordinance, force the owner to clean up the vegetation, and abate the nuisance. … This is just a crazy situation of benign neglect.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in November 5 – November 12, 2026.
