IVCSD discussed I.V. harm reduction project, car-free living in Isla Vista

The Isla Vista Community Services District Board covered new progress on a bluff fall memorial, the fall quarter Isla Vista Safe meeting and ideas for parking strategies for new developments during its Oct. 27 meeting.

The meeting began with a report of the Oct. 21 I.V. Safe meeting, which covered Soltopia 2027 and the I.V. Harm Reduction Project. The project consists of implementing non-police safety services in I.V. every Friday and Saturday night. Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) General Manager Jonathan Abboud said the harm reduction project was “very well received” by the agencies at the meeting. 

The board discussed having insufficient funding for Soltopia 2027. IVCSD is currently looking to partner  with other agencies for Soltopia 2027. IVCSD Director Annabelle Sipos, a fourth-year anthropology and global studies double major, said that UC Santa Barbara has expressed tentative interest in helping to organize the event.  

Attendees at the meeting had mixed views on the possibility of reducing the number of police officers at Soltopia. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office initially said that numbers would be similar to last year, while Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said that the plan was to reduce numbers. Sipos noted that the Sheriff’s Office has not started planning for Soltopia 2027. 

“[The officers] were more concerned with why students weren’t 100% pleased with Soltopia last year and less about funding or the actual event,” Sipos said. 

According to IVCSD Director and fourth-year economics and philosophy double major Noah Luken,  the district’s goal is to make Soltopia 2027 a more positive experience for attendees while maintaining the reduced citations and medical call numbers from last year. Luken explained that the board is “definitely having those conversations as soon as possible.”

Luken also reported on a meeting he had with Capps the week prior where they discussed potentially changing or reducing the noise ordinance for Soltopia weekend. They hope that in future years, students could have events in their own yards without facing citations. 

“[Capps] said she sees flexibility in the future for that, but the event would need to prove itself for another year or two first,” Luken said. 

He also noted that any changes to the noise ordinance would have to go through the Sheriff’s Office, which he is focused on working with to make sure students aren’t being cited for actions that aren’t harmful to the community. 

The board then turned its focus to IVCSD Assistant General Manager Sydney Castaneda’s presentation about cliff and bluff falls in I.V.

Castaneda explained that since 1993, at least 14 lives have been lost to cliff and bluff falls in I.V. In an effort to remember those who’ve passed and educate I.V.’s constantly changing population, IVCSD launched a Cliff Safety and Education campaign in 2023. The campaign included updating UCSB and Santa Barbara City College orientation materials to include bluff safety, and IVCSD has been working to build a permanent bluff fall memorial in Walter Capps Park on Del Playa Drive. 

With funding in place and a bench designed by UCSB Woodshop Technician Carson Brown already created for the memorial, the only barrier that had been stalling construction was deciding who would pay for the memorial’s ongoing maintenance, amounting to about $500 per year. Castaneda updated the board, saying that the district would agree to fund the maintenance of the memorial.  

The motion to approve the agreement to commit to the maintenance of the memorial and to submit permit applications was unanimously approved by the board, with Director Spencer Brandt sharing his personal connection to cliff falls and the importance of this memorial. 

“We are not the only college community where people drink alcohol, but we are the only one where people die in this way, and it’s really important that we both memorialize lives lost and do it in a way to make it very visible for new students,” Brandt said.  

The Cliff Safety Hub, a set of safety resources available on the IVCSD website, includes  a map of falls, safety tips, a letter template for tenants to request bluff measurements from landlords and contacts for how to report unsafe bluffs especially during this El Niño season. 

Finally, the board discussed potential strategies to deal with proposed and in-progress housing developments that currently have less than standard amounts of on-site parking. The proposed solutions included requiring sidewalk construction, secure bike storage lockers, food co-op memberships, bus passes and possible monthly mobility credits to be used on services like Uber and Lyft. 

According to the board, the goal of these discussions is to make it easier to live car-free in I.V., and to reduce traffic and parking congestion, especially as more housing is being built in the area, including the San Benito and East Campus housing projects. 

A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the Nov. 5 print edition of the Daily Nexus.