A
third and fourth argument that we commonly encounter is
that development provides jobs and that houses replenish
our desperately diminished housing stock. It is true that
development provides jobs, but these jobs are transitory
while the development is permanent. So this is not a good
trade-off. As for the issue of housing, many in the Coalition
are in strong agreement that something must be done to ease
the pressure on the housing market or Santa Barbara will
wind up, like Aspen, a town where only the rich can live.
The problem with the housing issue in reference to San Marcos
Foothills is that only a very few will be able to purchase
housing there. But we all agree that it is again a poor
trade-off to exchange (permanently) the extraordinary beauty
and biological diversity of Santa Barbara’s natural
inheritance for the benefit of a very few people.
Our
own final argument is the cluster of arguments we have been
making all through this Plan of Stewardship. San Marcos
Foothills, thanks to a long sequence of near miraculous
escapes, has not only kept its stunning beauty, but also
preserved a kind of rich organic complexity of life that
used to thrive along the South Coast before development
occurred. And this has happened despite the fact that these
acres sit right on our urban border. The opportunity to
preserve this parcel, then, is a rare opportunity to insure
that all will share a permanent daily reminder of that beauty
and that complexity. It is also an opportunity to give our
children a natural classroom where they can learn both to
value and to understand what would otherwise have been lost.
It will give us a natural laboratory as well, where we can
both study the unique ecology of the South Coast and learn
more about how to preserve it. Finally, what we do here
in our town may well work as a model and inspiration for
others. In all these ways, this gift to our community would
keep on giving for centuries to come.
If
you are likewise inspired to preserve this land and are
not yet a member of the San Marcos Foothills Coalition,
we cordially invite you to join us. Please visit our website
at www.sanmarcosfoothills.org.
The current officers of the Coalition can be found in Appendix
G.
