I have been a proponent for a win-win-win scenario to break the deadlock between the county and the Chumash tribe over the tribe’s need for housing, joining with many who have enumerated the benefits to the tribe and community of this more prudent development scenario. The solution demands that all of us truly act as neighbors: the tribe to renounce its efforts to take Camp 4 into the reservation through the fee-to-trust process, and the county to fast-track approval of housing construction on the tribe’s newly purchased, pastoral triangle property adjacent to downtown Santa Ynez.
I am ardently opposed to the tribe’s efforts to incorporate Camp 4 into the reservation through fee-to-trust and totally committed to maintaining the rural character of the Santa Ynez Valley. So I was most disappointed when the tribe’s chairman publicly dismissed the notion of moving the housing onto the triangle, and then went on to announce an effort to take the triangle and many other parcels into the reservation through the fee-to-trust process.
To make matters worse, the chairman produced a map showing huge pieces of the triangle, and even some of Camp 4, potentially dedicated to commercial development. That constituted a stunning escalation in the tribe’s willingness to develop and commercialize vast tracts of our pastoral homeland, far beyond the tribe’s stated need for housing.
To its credit, the county Board of Supervisors has decided to stay engaged with the tribe despite these new developments, after an operational pause during which the board will focus on its annual budget process.
As it turns out, during this same operational pause, the tribe will go through its own re-focusing phase as it goes through a change in leadership. During the transition I call on members of the tribe to re-examine their own commitments as neighbors to everyone else in the Santa Ynez Valley. This is a rare discontinuity in the tribe’s trajectory in planning for the future. It represents a strategic opportunity—an opportunity for the tribe to re-calibrate the way it relates to the overall community.
The tribe has already shown it can compete quite successfully without the training wheels of fee-to-trust. Their properties at Hotel Corque, Root 246, and Hadsten House have been fabulously profitable and first-class facilities.
Cooperative and equitable land-use decision-making, as opposed to one party pursuing a vision without regard for others, has the best chance of ensuring neighborly relations and a unified community for future generations. Santa Barbara County has long relied on a diversified economy, based on responsible stewardship of our natural environs in concert with fair and equal opportunity for all. It’s our rural character and agricultural heritage that sets the Santa Ynez Valley apart from other now-overdeveloped urban California interior valleys.
I call upon the tribe to work with the county in a cooperative effort that reflects the contribution and success of their hard-won self-reliance. It’s time to move beyond the crutch of fee-to-trust, and get on with the work of providing equitable opportunities for future generations while we continue to preserve our rural character.
This article appears in Apr 7-14, 2016.