BY HARRY NELSON and SCOTT COOPER, both UCSB professors, who serve on the Highway 217 Review Committee. Both reside in Goleta, and neither commutes to work on the 217.

Santa Barbara County has plans to put stoplights on Highway 217, a.k.a. Ward Memorial Boulevard. The UCSB community opposes the stoplights, and supports overpasses and ramps for linking Highway 217 to southern Goleta Old Town. Although the County and UCSB are now at an impasse, our desire has always been to work together to solve this problem. There is a solution that will work for everyone.

State Route 217 is 2.6 miles long and connects Highway 101, between Patterson and Fairview, to the entrance of a state University, UCSB. When 217 was designed, Highway 101 still had intersections with stoplights. Roads like the old 101 had a death rate from accidents about ten times greater than modern interstates. Indeed, in the 1950's, local advocates argued that Highway 217 should join the 101 at La Cumbre, to keep UCSB travelers off the dangerous 101 longer. Highway 217 is designed like an interstate to keep travelers safe.

The County's goal is to stimulate industrial development in the coastal zone of southern Goleta Old Town. This goal is one part of the Goleta Old Town Revitalization Project. One new stoplight would be placed on 217 at Ekwill Street, just north of the News-Press Building, and a second would be placed at Fowler Street, just north of the Drive-In/Swap-Meet.

Upgrades to make Old Town on Hollister more inviting and livable have been touted, but they are a minor part of the whole revitalization project's cost. The stoplights and associated road projects for southern Old Town will cost $19.7 million, or 65% of the revitalization budget. Early on, the County considered one full freeway interchange instead of two closely-spaced stoplights on 217, but rejected the interchange as too costly at $20 million.

Most people at UCSB support a more inviting and livable Old Town, but there are reservations about other parts of the project. Some worry that new industrial pollution will damage wetlands, creeks, and the ocean. Industrial use will diminish the adjacent habitat for endangered steelhead trout. The road projects will damage Old San Jose Creek wetlands. Others note that the County predicted that the industrialization of southern Old Town would eliminate 400 housing units, largely occupied by low-income, single-parent families. A County accounting quirk keeps that loss from qualifying as a reduction in affordable housing.

All major faculty, staff, and student organizations at UCSB have focused on the direct impacts of Goleta Old Town revitalization on UCSB. Stoplights on 217 at Ekwill and Fowler would have the biggest impacts on UCSB. All organizations have voted overwhelmingly against the stoplights. The stoplights would make 217 more dangerous, doubling or tripling its fatality rate, according to Federal statistics. More deaths also would occur for traffic in and out of southern Old Town. Stopping 217 traffic would cause air pollution and traffic delays, including backups on to the 101, bringing substantial health and economic costs. The County, which already has large road maintenance backlogs, has no money to take over the maintenance of 217 from CalTrans.

UCSB would appear even more remote from South and Central Coast communities, if stoplights are installed. A noted Architect and Urban Planner, Prof. Barton Myers of UCLA, notes that UCSB's population size resembles that of downtown Santa Barbara. He states that access to UCSB from 101 is inferior to access for the downtown, and that other existing roads (e.g. Fairview) to UCSB should be upgraded to improve access. Barton Myers calls stoplights on Highway 217 a "monumental mistake"with highly detrimental effects on UCSB.

The UCSB community has clearly and consistently voiced opposition to stoplights on 217. In January, 1997, 95 people wrote comments to the County, which were included in the draft EIR, opposing stoplights. The County then told UCSB officials that more opposition would jeopardize funding for the entire Old Town Revitalization Project. The Third District Supervisor assured us that the County's goal was Old Town access to 217, and that stoplights were simply placeholders until a solution was found. UCSB received repeated, documented assurances that it would be included in designing any changes to Highway 217. Most recently, in a letter on April 14, 1999, the Third District Supervisor stated "I want to reinforce my commitment that the County will involve UCSB every step of the way as we move forward on the transfer of Route 217 and the Old Town Revitalization Project."

Funding arrived late in 1999, and UCSB discovered that stoplights were hard-wired into the County's plan for 217. All campus groups spoke out, and Chancellor Yang formed a committee representing the students, staff, and faculty at UCSB to study this issue again. Our committee has now met over 30 times, reviewed numerous documents from UCSB and the County, and met with many stakeholders. It surprised us that County documents omit impacts, such as new traffic deaths, on UCSB, but addressed extensively the interests of developers of the Old Town coastal zone. We assembled a paper trail documenting UCSB's consistent opposition to stoplights on 217. Our analyses suggested that the Fowler Road stoplight brought modest benefits that didn't seem to justify its costs.

We have assumed that County assurances of UCSB participation in Highway 217's re-design remain valid. In February, our traffic consultants produced our first design for Old Town access to 217 (see our web page, http://www.ucsb.edu/campus-topics/217/) which involves two ramps and an underpass, under the 217, for Ekwill Street. Unlike the County's plan, our design connected the west segment of Ekwill with the east segment, where there is high-tech business. Our design tackled two of the problems raised in the County's Old Town reports: first, parts of Old Town divided by 217 were joined; second, east-west traffic flow was improved. The County rejected our design, this time saying that better east-west traffic flow was actually unacceptable, because it encouraged development east of 217. We are working with our consultants on new alternatives that appear to relieve congestion on the 101 and on Hollister in Old Town better than stoplights do.

County staff have made it clear that they view stop lights as the only solution to Old Town access and are moving forward with their plans. For example, on Friday, June 16, the UCSB team met with the County, including the Third District Supervisor and the Director of Public Works, to discuss 217. One day earlier the County set up a crucial vote on the design contract for 217 for the Supervisor's meeting on Tuesday, June 20. The County did not mention that vote to UCSB, in spite of earlier agreements to notify UCSB about it.

The academic year at UCSB ended on Sunday, June 18, and few students and faculty were available when UCSB discovered that this crucial vote was planned. Nevertheless, dozens from the UCSB community appeared at the June 20 Supervisors' meeting to voice their concerns about the proposed stoplights. As a result, for the first time ever, there is a member from UCSB on the County's design group for 217. At UCSB, the fact that the County both failed to notify UCSB, and scheduled a crucial vote during UCSB's break, spoke volumes about the County's regard for the UCSB community.

Our committee is intent on solving the problem of access to 217 with innovation, sound engineering, and cooperation. The emotions of the moment won't get to us, and we will stick to UCSB's clear and consistent policy: access to the 217 for Old Town is desirable, but stoplights are unacceptable. The revitalization of Goleta Old Town need not impede traffic flows on Highway 217. There is a solution that will work for all of us.