June 15, 2000

The Honorable Susan J. Rose
Second District Supervisor
Chair, Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors
105 East Anapamu Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101


Dear Supervisor Rose:

Chancellor Yang has forwarded your May 3, 2000, letter to the Highway 217 Review Committee and asked the Committee to respond. The following letter is the product of long consideration and deliberations by the Highway 217 Review Committee.

We appreciate the responses we have received from you and Supervisor Marshall, and the time and effort the County has devoted to working on this important issue. We can assure you that the University also has devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to working cooperatively with the County on the Highway 217 issue.

We have sent to you a copy of our reply to Supervisor Marshall's April 18, 2000, response, and refer you to our reply for a detailed discussion of our concerns about the process outlined in Supervisor Marshall's letter. In short, the process suggested by Supervisor Marshall sets up a competition between a "County plan" for Highway 217 and a "University alternative." We cannot support that aspect of the process, because we do not think that this process will lead to a solution that is mutually acceptable to all stakeholders. In addition, the schedule outlined by Supervisor Marshall has proven to be too tight, largely owing to the time required to define the scope of traffic analyses, which are obligatory, even in the absence of input from UCSB.

The Highway 217 Review Committee represents the entire UCSB campus. An important part of our mandate is to insure that the campus’s voice is heard. During work hours the UCSB campus constitutes a community of nearly 25,000 people. UCSB is the largest employer in the County and our staff, students, and faculty reside in all five supervisorial districts. Tens of thousands of residents from all parts of our County visit UCSB each year to enjoy access to artistic, intellectual and athletic resources. Furthermore, it is likely that Highway 217 will be incorporated into the Second District after the impending reapportionment. We are surprised, therefore, by the reluctance of Supervisors outside the Third District to allow the voices of their constituents to be heard on the issue of Highway 217, because changes in the highway will have impacts on the citizens of all districts. We respectfully request that you meet with your constituents who would like to discuss this issue with you.

We thank you for your on-going assistance and we look forward to cooperation on this and all other issues which affect both the County and the University.

Sincerely,



Professor Scott D. Cooper, Chair
UCSB Highway 217 Review Committee
On behalf of the Highway 217 Review Committee



cc: Chancellor Henry T. Yang
Supervisor Naomi Schwartz
Supervisor Gail Marshall
Supervisor Joni Gray
Supervisor Tom Urbanske
Mayor Harriet Miller
John Patton, Director of Planning and Development
Phil Demery, Director of Public Works
Matt Dobberteen, Planning and Development
Jonny Wallis, Chair, Goleta Old Town Project Area Committee
Richard Watts, Chair, Academic Senate
Highway 217 Review Committee Members