Montecito homeowners can’t put rocks along road to stop visitors from parking, county says

Santa Barbara County is cracking down on Montecito homeowners who have placed boulders, shrubs and other landscaping along the road in an effort to stop visitors who want to park and hike a popular trail.

The county on March 18 posted letters at the properties of 11 homeowners on East Mountain Drive and Riven Rock Road, demanding that they move the obstructions within 10 days.

The letters state that the residents must remove the problematic items in the public right-of-way, then apply for an encroachment permit.

If the items are not removed, according to the letter, the homeowners face a fine of $350 a day, an additional $500 fine, and liability for all the county’s expenses and any damages caused by the encroachments.

The notices were one of the last acts of Scott McGolpin, the county’s longtime public works director, who retired this week.

“We are just re-initiating the process that we started to get the right-of-way cleared of obstructions,” McGolpin told Noozhawk. “The county has authority to use the public right-of-way.”

A debate has existed for more than two years after the county sent letters to three property owners, ordering them to remove any unpermitted “obstructions” in front of their homes in the right-of-way on East Mountain Drive, threatening them with fines if they didn’t comply.

The county contended that homeowners were deliberately placing things in the roadway to stop people from parking and walking to the Hot Springs Trail. About eight parking spaces currently exist at the start of the trail.

The popularity of the trail erupted after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. TikTok and other social posts turned the once-local trail into a destination for tourists looking to get outside during the pandemic.

The homeowners sued the county, and Judge Thomas Anderle ruled that the county must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act and perform an environmental review before trying to create more parking in the area.

But the California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, reversed the decision in July. McGolpin said the notices were unrelated to his retirement, and that the timing was just how long it took for the issue to work through the court system.

David Cousineau, an attorney with the Santa Barbara law firm Cappello & Noël LLP, declined to comment about the county’s letters.

Chris Sneddon, the new public works director as of April 1, said he is “optimistic that we are going to be able to work it out.”

“We sent out letters to owners and are working with them to permit what can stay and have them remove what needs to be removed,” Sneddon said. “We’re in the process of meeting with owners and reviewing their submittals.”

Montecito residents Christopher Anderson, Ross Bagdasarian, Peter Barker and James Moreley in April of 2022 filed a petition to stop the county from pursuing its Hot Springs Trailhead Parking Design & Construction Project, citing environmental and evacuation concerns with the increased traffic.

McGolpin and county officials at the time said they were looking to add parking spaces by removing the obstructions. It is unclear how many, although the Montecito residents believed that the county wanted to add as many as 62.

The goal, McGolpin said, was to remove the obstructions to pick up “12 to 15 potential spots.”