{"id":4395,"date":"2009-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4395"},"modified":"2013-11-23T18:12:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T02:12:41","slug":"noozhawk-talks-leslie-dinaberg-sits-down-with-dave-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4395","title":{"rendered":"Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg Sits Down With Dave Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dave<\/a>

Dave Davis<\/p><\/div>\n

After almost 25 years as the City of Santa Barbara’s Community Development\u00a0Director and a City Planner, Dave Davis now brings his expertise to the\u00a0Community Environmental Council<\/a> (CEC), where he serves as CEO\/Executive\u00a0Director.<\/p>\n

Leslie Dinaberg: Did you ever think you would end up working for the CEC after\u00a0retirement?<\/p>\n

Dave Davis: The simple answer is no … but it’s great. It was taking all the things I had
\nlearned for 30 years and applying them from a community standpoint of being an
\nadvocate for positive change. … It was liberating for me to really focus on what
\nneeds to be done.<\/p>\n

LD: It sounds like a very unique opportunity.<\/p>\n

DD: It really was. So did I ever envision it, no. But boy it slapped me upside the
\nhead and there was no denying that yeah, I want to do this. I want to put my
\neffort behind it.<\/p>\n

LD: That’s terrific. What are some of your priority programs?<\/p>\n

DD: Starting the energy program … to create a blueprint for Santa Barbara
\nCounty. We found a nice little jingle, “Fossil free by ’33.”<\/p>\n

… We basically set the priorities. They are really simple. Within in this region
\nfocus on energy efficiency, personal energy efficiency and building energy
\nefficiency, secondly transportation efficiency, and that includes everything from
\nhybrid cars to mass transit and so forth, alternative fuels, building as many
\nliterally, renewable projects within the region as possible.<\/p>\n

LD: What do you mean by that?<\/p>\n

DD: Wind, solar, wave. What this blueprint does is it actually inventories the
\npotential for any of those categories here in Santa Barbara. When you look at the
\nstate of California and …the amount of land that you can actually do major wind
\nprojects boils down to a very, very small area, two or three spots, and we happen
\nto be one of them. In and around the Lompoc Point Conception area, and
\noffshore outside of the islands, there is a significant potential for wind
\ndevelopment over the years that could supply major amounts of energy-not just
\nfor Santa Barbara, much more than we would ever use-that we would be
\nsupporting the energy use of Southern California.<\/p>\n

… The big solar projects for us are inland, Cuyama Valley those areas out there,
\nthat’s where the potential is. But there is on top of essentially almost every
\nsignificant rooftop the opportunity to do major solar distributing to the community.<\/p>\n

… Financing is just so expensive, so one of the things we’re working on …
\nthere’s been recent legislation which allows cities and counties to float low
\ninterest revenue bonds which are then paid off by people who want the solar on
\ntheir houses and their payments go onto their property taxes over 30 years.<\/p>\n

… Lastly when it comes to renewables there, is potential within the region for
\nwave energy. This is really new technology, … but again when you get off of
\nPoint Conception area, the wave frequency, wave height, again we have a
\nresource potential there which outstrips our usage here.<\/p>\n

LD: So you’re got this blueprint and you’ve got these plans …<\/p>\n

DD: … so the last thing here is to move this out into the community and public
\npolicy. … We formed a coalition with the architects, the American Institute of
\nArchitects, the AIA; the Santa Barbara Contractors Association, the Sustainability
\nProject and Built Green Santa Barbara<\/a>, and we went to the city and challenged
\nthem to work with us to develop the most energy efficient ordinance in California,
\nif not the country, and we did. And adopted it. And it’s been in effect and we’re
\ngoing to the county in the very term to move that policy also out into the
\ncounty.<\/p>\n

LD: In the county, because of the fires, there’s a lot more building going on now
\nthan we would have ever thought.<\/p>\n

DD: Now let’s go into another example. So the fire happened and we were all
\naffected in one way or another, emotionally if not physically. …Again, we pulled
\ntogether our same coalition …We held a community forum up at Montecito
\nCovenant Church and we had 250 people.<\/p>\n

Our coalition, led by us, went to the city and the county and said we want to
\ndevelop a plan not just to fast track these guys, but to basically put them on a
\nwhole other process that they avoid the pitfalls of rebuilding. So we worked …
\nthat if in fact they come in and they want to build better, they don’t go down
\nthrough that whole process of boards and committee and reviews, so they have
\nan independent review to look at those architectural, energy, and fire resistance
\nimprovements and that they would move, not just to the head of the line, they
\nwould go on consent calendar, that they would move directly on to the consent
\ncalendar of the design review board so that they can go immediately into building
\ntheir house.<\/p>\n

LD: It seems like incredible timing for that.<\/p>\n

DD: Yes. …If you went in and tried to retrofit those big old houses it’s really
\ncomplicated. But now people can actually think was that the best place to put the
\nbuilding. Did it need to be over here? Did the road need to be wider? Did the
\nmaterials need to be fire resistant? And while I’m doing this could the materials
\nbasically save me money energy efficiency wise?<\/p>\n

And I must tell you, the night we set up this forum it was one month to the day of
\nthe fire we held the forum, which was pretty quick to get people out, organization,
\neverybody there. Not knowing how traumatized people would be …we really
\nactually hit a nerve. … People came up to me and said this is the first time since
\nthe fire that I felt any sense of help. I teared up because it was really personal. …
\nThis was just a great opportunity for the community to come together.<\/p>\n

LD: What do you think would be the single thing that we, as a community, could
\ndo to improve our energy efficiency?<\/p>\n

DD: There isn’t one, there’s really two. They are at the heart of what I’ve been
\ntalking about. On the South Coast, the biggest things that we can do is one,
\nmake our buildings more energy efficient. … The second thing … if we could
\ndevelop aggressive social carpooling techniques, it would be significant. …
\nYoung people, they’re geared to do it. Generationally, they’re going to do it, if we
\ncan give them the tools and encourage it, then you start pushing it up to old folks
\nlike me, we could go a long way.<\/p>\n

LD: That’s actually a great use of technology.<\/p>\n

DD: The other thing too, if we build the freeway, … that third lane being an HOV
\n(high occupancy vehicle) lane and running buses from Ventura like they’re doing.
\nThey’re going through the roof with their subscriptions and carpooling of three
\npeople per car. It would make a difference not just on the freeway but on the city
\nstreets and in the parking lots.<\/p>\n

LD: That has a good synergy with your work as a board member at MTD
\ntoo.<\/p>\n

DD: Oh absolutely. To my glee I found with my retirement that I could pull
\ntogether all the good things that I wanted to accomplish and do them. Not bad.
\n(Laughs).<\/p>\n

LD: If you could pick three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they
\nbe?<\/p>\n

DD: Clearly I’m passionate, and that goes from my avocations to my vocation;
\nknowledgeable, both from the standpoint that I’m now a community elder, and
\nthat I have basically always loved to seek knowledge and continue to. You know
\nthe thing that I loved about my job with the city was that it brought me into
\ncontact with so many different fields of expertise and knowledge. …. The other
\none I would say is basically I’m happy, that Joie de Vivre, let the good times
\nroll.<\/p>\n

Vital Stats: Dave Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born: New Orleans, Louisiana, July 15, 1948<\/p>\n

Family: wife Jean, son Jesse (30) and daughter Nora (27)<\/p>\n

Civic Involvement: Board member, Metropolitan Transit District, board member,
\nUCSB Economic Forecast Project; CEO\/Executive Director, Community
\nEnvironmental Council<\/p>\n

Professional Accomplishments: City of Santa Barbara’s Community Development
\nDirector and City Planner for almost 25 years; taught planning and environmental
\nstudies at UCLA and Moorpark College; Downtown Organization Citizen of the
\nYear; Citizens Planning Association Planner of the Year, American Planning
\nAssociation National Social Advocacy Planner of the Year; Lifetime Achievement
\nAward, Santa Barbara American Institute of Architects; Jacaranda Award for
\nLifetime Achievement, Santa Barbara Beautiful.<\/p>\n

Best Book You’ve Read Recently: “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and
\nDavid Oliver Relin<\/p>\n

Little-Known Fact: Until a few years ago Davis was an avid surfer, and once
\nsurfed 20-foot waves in Kaui’s Hanalei Bay.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Noozhawk<\/a>\u00a0on February 17, 2009. Click here<\/a> to read the article on that site.<\/h6>\n

Share this:<\/h3>