Isla Vista residents and business owners have a chance to either speak in defense of local traffic barricades or demand their destruction.

Those attending a meeting today at 10 a.m. at the Board of Supervisors’ Hearing Room at 105 East Anapamu St. in downtown Santa Barbara can give the county planners input regarding whether the barricades should stay.

The barricades presently prevent vehicles from accessing Camino Pescadero from the end of Pardall Road or the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive. The idea of removing these landscaped cement structures arose at an Oct. 10 I.V. Project Area Committee (PAC) meeting.

“[The removal] is something PAC has recommended in the past for more efficient traffic flow and circulation,” PAC Project Manager Jamie Goldstein said in a May 9 interview.

Jeff Marek, a senior political science major and PAC member, said because PAC seeks to revise I.V. to benefit its residents, students unable to attend today’s meeting and future PAC meetings can contact him.

“Public participation is loved, but it can be a pain in the ass to go to the meetings and wait until they talk about [a person’s topic of choice],” he said. “If they would rather contact me, that might be better.”

Marek can be e-mailed with I.V. PAC-related comments at .

marek@umail.ucsb.edu