The 12.5 acre Hidden Valley Open Space located at the end of Palermo Drive is a unique property containing many valuable attributes contributing to the serenity and beauty of both the neighborhood and the City of Santa Barbara. The site is owned by the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD), which is proposing to build an educational farm with added classrooms and infrastructure. The Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council believes that this plan would not be the best use for the site. Instead, we advocate using the land for publicly accessible open space, habitat restoration, and nature-based education, all of which would benefit the entire community.
The site is uniquely valuable and ecologically significant. It is one of the last remaining undeveloped parcels located near a creek in the City. It contains several important habitat types including a majestic oak woodland, coastal sage scrub, grassland, and wetlands. Preserving the site as open space would allow for restoration, passive recreation, and nature observation.
Protecting and restoring the site would also complement the City’s creek restoration goals. The City of SB is purchasing an adjacent 5.3 acre creekside property, and rezoning it from residential property to recreational open space, in order to restore the creek and prevent flooding in the neighborhood. The school district property will complement the City’s long-term management plan of restoring creeks and open space for habitat, recreation, water quality and flood control.
Rather than developing the SBUSD site with agriculture, buildings, paved roads, a parking lot, and lighting, this ecologically significant site should be restored and protected. Open space is the best classroom for learning about nature.
Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council (SBUCC) is a local non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring streams and watersheds in Santa Barbara County. SBUCC works to educate people, from school kids and adults to agency staff and decision makers, about the values of creeks.
Please join SBUCC in telling the SBUSD that you strongly support protecting the Hidden Valley Open Space for the benefit of the community and future generations to come.