Santa Barbara News-Press


Neighborhood activist seeks supervisor seat

BARNEY McMANIGAL, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER


February 26, 2006 7:20 AM

 Pledging to fight hardest to protect South Coast neighborhoods from high-density development, Joe Guzzardi formally declared his candidacy for county supervisor Saturday.

Under a blue sky, from behind a blue campaign banner and flanked by some 50 blue-balloon-holding friends, family and citizens, the county Fire Department emergency services planner officially entered the June 6 race to succeed Susan Rose, who is not seeking re-election.

"First and foremost, I will fight the state housing mandate," said Mr. Guzzardi, 51, standing in the wild grass and weeds of open space on Calle Real near Turnpike Road that is proposed for a 400-home development.

"Some have their sights set on this piece of land," he said of the 18.6-acre parcel, formerly farmland.

"One of the tenets of county government is to save ag, but they want to lose all this ag to pavement and housing. I want to stop that."

Most candidates for 2nd District, which stretches from the Santa Barbara waterfront to the city of Goleta, have made preserving neighborhoods a top priority. Besides Mr. Guzzardi, contenders Dan Secord, Das Williams and Janet Wolf have ramped up their rhetoric in recent months, pledging to fight plans for dense housing that lack proper planning.

Mr. Guzzardi says he is the only candidate with a proven track record defending neighborhoods. More than a decade ago, the San Fernando Valley native entered the political arena battling plans to expand a large retirement home near his Samarkand-area residence. He has been active in neighborhood issues ever since.

While his positions have won him accolades from residents, his three unsuccessful bids for City Council in the 1990s -- including a near win in 1999 -- have tarnished his credentials among some political elites, who say he can't win.

Mr. Guzzardi, a moderate Democrat, hopes to prove them wrong in June, or, if no single candidate takes more than half the vote, in a November runoff.

Some insiders believe he has a chance if he can translate neighborhood frustration into political muscle.

So far, members of neighborhood groups, like the Coalition for Sensible Planning, have played a high-profile role in his campaign, forming an ad hoc organization, the Committees to Save Santa Barbara and the Goleta Valleys, that has declared him the winner of a Jan. 18 candidate forum attended by close to 400 residents. Residents reportedly have begun distributing up to 15,000 fliers, which cost about $300.

"It's truly a grass-roots effort," said Gary Earle, who introduced Mr. Guzzardi on Saturday, describing the candidate as having "an uncanny knowledge of the issues that are important to us."

"We're fully behind him here, and we're going to try to run the most effective campaign we can," Mr. Earle said.

Mr. Guzzardi has made fighting a state-mandated proposal for 1,240 high-density homes a campaign centerpiece. As supervisor, he would renegotiate with state officials to reduce the number of homes required in the county's 2003-08 housing element, he said.

"I'm the only one who is genuinely interested in protecting neighborhoods," Mr. Guzzardi said in an interview.

Taking aim at opponents, he asserted that Dr. Secord, a former Santa Barbara city councilman, "has been approving projects that are harmful to neighborhoods since he's been on the (city) Planning Commission." Dr. Secord could not be reached for comment.

While he notes that Mr. Williams has opposed several projects since he joined the council in 2004, Mr. Guzzardi said the sitting Santa Barbara councilman has created only the appearance of neighborhood preservation, and has failed to back residents on key votes.

"Time and time again it appears that (Mr. Williams) is creating a facade, and that's why I don't trust him," Mr. Guzzardi said.

When asked about former Goleta school board member Janet Wolf, Mr. Guzzardi warned that the 11-year education veteran "has no track record."

But Mr. Guzzardi's challengers reject those statements.

Saying he was "disappointed" by the remarks, Mr. Williams, who nominated Mr. Guzzardi to a city planning panel last year, said he has accomplished more because he holds public office.

"Joe says good things about neighborhoods, but if you want results on neighborhood protection and preserving open space, I've produced those results," Mr. Williams said.

Ms. Wolf said she wants to "bring people together" on the housing issue. She has pledged to protect neighborhoods, but declined to take on the state mandate.

"Density and design standards are important, but so are the firefighters, nurses and sheriffs that keep our community safe and healthy," Ms. Wolf said.

Seeking to shift the discussion back to the region's housing needs, longtime affordable housing advocate and county Housing Authority Commissioner Mickey Flacks said that the MTD property where Mr. Guzzardi made his announcement Saturday has not cultivated crops for a decade and has been used as a storage yard for oil-emitting buses.

For years county officials and developers have discussed building homes for low-income residents on the site, and point to the parcel's proximity to mass transit lines as a potential benefit.

"The precious ag land is a brown field," Ms. Flacks said.

Staff writer Shelly Leachman

contributed to this report. Contact

Barney McManigal at bmcmanigal

@newspress.com.