The City Council of Goleta met on December 2. From the opinions expressed there, it appears likely that the City will seek to place stoplights on Highway 217.

The first step in the process toward changing Highway 217 is the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project. The first step toward preparation of the EIR is to hold a scoping hearing, where the public is encouraged to provide input on what concerns the EIR should address, and on what alternatives the EIR should analyze and why.

The scoping hearing for the Highway 217 changes is planned to occur:

6:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Goleta Valley Community Center
5679 Hollister Avenue, Goleta

In the past, the 'program level' EIR done in 1998 for Goleta Old Town did not address concerns of UCSB travelers on the 217. For example, the impact of new injury accidents on the 217 was not analyzed; recent studies have indicated 10 new injury accidents per year would occur if stoplights or roundabouts were placed on the 217.

Other aspects of the situation for proposed changes for Highway 217 can be found in the October 18 Update.

We have requested that the City of Goleta hold more scoping hearings, and it is likely that there will be one held on the UCSB campus during lunch hour sometime between January 13 and January 25. We will make suitable announcements when more detail is known.