The California Coastal Commission has granted UC Santa Barbara a temporary emergency permit to install cameras near the lagoon as a violent crime “deterrent.” This will be followed by a permanent lighting proposal, with tentative approval by the end of the academic year.
The California Coastal Commission will have 30 days to review the proposal and if approved, the installation of lighting will begin. Nexus file photo
The emergency permit will last 90 days, after which the UCSB Director of Capital & Physical Planning, Josh Rohmer and the Associate Director of Campus Planning & Design, Shari Hammond, will submit an impending development permit for permanent lighting structures. The California Coastal Commission (CCC), which regulates and approves all development on the California Coast, will have 30 days to review the proposal and if approved, the installation of lighting will begin.
Following a reported sexual assault near the lagoon on Oct. 9, 2025, students took action to advocate for increased safety measures in the area, including the installation of lights along the unlit paths. For decades, the lagoon has been a hotspot for violent crimes on campus, including sexual assault, attempted abductions and robberies.
Previous Daily Nexus coverage has found that this will be the first lighting proposal submitted to the CCC by the University, despite the decades of reported violent crimes in the area.
When the UC Police Department (UCPD) held its annual lighting and safety walk on Nov. 5, they added a route around the lagoon, marking the locations where attendees wanted lights installed. These locations were decided through community input and shared with campus planners for the eventual lighting design.
Following this, Associated Students Internal Vice President and fourth-year history and global studies double major Enri Lala, and Senator and second-year political science major Evan Sussman testified before the CCC in Sacramento on Nov. 7. Sussman urged them to approve any future lighting proposals.
From conversations with CCC representatives, Sussman said that lighting approval is “very likely” and he is hopeful that construction will begin as early as this summer.
Funding for the lights has not yet been discussed, but Sussman said A.S. will pay if they have to, because “that’s simply what student government is meant to do, it’s to improve the lives and safety of all students on campus.”
“These lights are not only a symbolic gesture of bringing safety and light onto campus, but it’s a matter of students feeling safe in the place that they call home for four years,” Sussman said.
Sussman has also confirmed that the motion sensor cameras will only be used as a crime deterrent and to record any violent crimes, and UCPD will not use recordings as evidence to punish petty crimes such as smoking.
A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Feb. 12 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
