Santa Barbara County Adding Environmental Justice Element To Comprehensive Plan
SISQUOC, Calif. (KEYT) - The Santa Barbara County Board Of Supervisors adopted a new ‘Environmental Justice Element’ to its Comprehensive Plan at Tuesday’s meeting.
It’s a state mandate that gives local jurisdictions discretion for making communities safer and healthier.
With Assembly Bill 1000, the State Of California is requiring local governments to add environmental justice language to their land-use planning policies.
An Environmental Justice Community (EJC) is an unincorporated county jurisdiction like Sisquoc that experiences certain environmental disadvantages.
“The state does call these communities disadvantaged communities,” said Zoe Carlson, the county’s Environmental Justice Project Manager in her presentation on Tuesday. “However, we received feedback from stakeholders and changed the terminology for the purpose of our environmental justice element to refer to these communities as environmental justice communities.”
These disadvantages are largely the result of historical policies for land use systems and practices.
“The state has delegated to local government some of its police powers for public health, safety and the general welfare,” said county supervisor Joan Hartmann from the dais on Tuesday. “And I see this squarely within that purview of the general welfare.”
Board supervisors acknowledge the broadly sweeping implications of the elements being considered.
“I know that we could spend the entire hearing on this because it's very broad, and you try to keep things very top level on purpose,” said board supervisor Laura Capps on Tuesday.
Various objectives include clean water, road repairs, park accessibility and safety, tree planting, overcrowding of low income communities, residents’ exposure to pesticides, and more.
“It's a whole host of policy documents that help to guide sort of how we want to see and develop the county in the future,” says Alex Tuttle, deputy director of the county’s Long Range Planning Division for the Planning and Development Department.
The county has short-term objectives to begin with, but it will engage the public to establish a better understanding of long-term needs.
“There will be no new taxes or imposition of new regulations or requirements imposed on property owners or businesses or existing operations,” says Tuttle. “It's really looking at what the county can do in particular, certainly working with community partners, stakeholders, citizens, to improve the quality of life within these communities.”
Officials say their intention is for the Enviornmental Justice Actions to change over time as their short-term goals are met.
The motion to begin the process of adopting the new Environmental Justice language elements in the county’s Comprehensive Plan passed unanimously.
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