{"id":4301,"date":"2005-05-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4301"},"modified":"2017-06-23T11:53:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:53:36","slug":"group-aims-to-influence-its-sphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4301","title":{"rendered":"Group aims to influence its sphere"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The unincorporated “Noleta” area between Goleta and SB, photo by Antandrus, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

That fine line between the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta — alternately known as “Noleta<\/a>,” “Santaleta,” “the unincorporated county” and “home” to approximately 30,000 residents of the 93110, 93111 and part of the 93105 ZIP codes — took a step toward becoming part of Santa Barbara on Tuesday, thanks to the petition efforts of a group called the West Santa Barbara Committee.<\/p>\n

Some of that area’s residents’ growing unease is the result of a governmental phenomenon known as a “sphere of influence,” in which a city may designate a contiguous unincorporated area as a potential prelude to annexation.<\/p>\n

Fueled in part by concern that the city of Goleta will include plans for the area in its General Plan, the West Santa Barbara Committee collected more than 4,000 signatures favoring Santa Barbara’s sphere of influence, as it was years ago.<\/p>\n

“Now we have Goleta doing its General Plan and hidden from view is a potential land grab for the entire unincorporated area. We know this is happening,” said Steve Engles, committee chairman.<\/p>\n

However, Bob Braitman, executive director of the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, told the Santa Barbara City Council that Goleta did not have any designs on the unincorporated area.<\/p>\n

“The city of Goleta says their boundaries are appropriate,” he said.<\/p>\n

LAFCO, which will ultimately decide the fate of the incorporated area, is in the process of doing a state-required Municipal Service Review of the zones and, when that is completed in the next month or so, Santa Barbara council members indicated they would likely be supportive of the efforts to put “Santaleta” into the city’s sphere of influence.<\/p>\n

Originally published in South Coast Beacon<\/a>\u00a0on May 12, 2005.<\/h6>\n

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