Santa Barbara County Considering Addition Of Environmental Justice Element To Comprehensive Plan

SISQUOC, Calif. (KEYT) - The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors considered the addition of the Environmental Justice Element (EJE) to their 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.

These disadvantages are largely the results of historical policies for land use systems and practices.

Board supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting acknowledged the broadly sweeping implications of the element being considered.

For EJC's, various subjects are at hand including clean water, road repairs, park accessibility and safety, tree planting, overcrowding of low income communities, residents' exposure to pesticides, and more.

The county has some short-term objectives to begin with, but they will be engaging with the public in various forms to establish better understanding of the long-term needs facing EJC's.

Officials say their intention is for the Enviornmental Justice Actions to change over time as their shorter-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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