1 miramar beach resort and bungalows project 2 - Santa Barbara ...

1 MBAR review that you all previously requested at the
2 last meeting, attempts to associate Mr. Caruso's project
3 with provisions and permissions given to the Ian
4 Schrager plan including associating with a negative
5 declaration, which incidentally is not an EIR but
6 sometimes considered one -- are inappropriate and
7 disturbing.
8 In that context, there's a real issue of
9 transparency here. And despite Mr. Middlebrook's quip
10 about land use fastballs, there really is a question
11 here of an aura of impropriety up until this point.
12 I think County erred in not requiring an EIR,
13 and it now falls to you all to correct that error. In a
14 very real way, what happens now is going to define all
15 of us. It's going to define Montecito in a great way
16 visually, physically. It's going to define a lot about
17 how Santa Barbara does business in the future, and it's
18 also going define you all as individuals and as member
19 of this decision-making body.
20 If you look to the future and you ask
21 yourself, if you were to allow this project to move
22 forward without requiring an EIR and if there were to be
23 a nightmare or several nightmares, if the parking turns
24 out to be our worst case fears or -- God forbid -- there
25 should be an accident on South Jameson, wouldn't you
160