The Isla Vista Community Service District heard from California Public Interest Research Group members and presented their public works and sustainability annual report during their board meeting on May 12.
Since March 27, 600 parking citations have been issued with fines totaling to about $24,000. Elijah Obando / Daily Nexus
Four members from the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), a grassroots activist organization, each made a public comment requesting the I.V. Community Service District (IVCSD) to support the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act of 2025.This act would hold large entities who contribute to fossil fuel emissions to be financially responsible for damages they create. According to Alex Borgas, a CALPIRG board member and second-year political science major, the bill would help Isla Vista directly since “40% of the funds” would be allocated to support “infrastructure in disadvantaged communities.”
“I think it’d be really great making the biggest companies pay for the damages that they’re creating,” Borgas said. “This is something that we’ve been working on for a while [by] gathering a lot of [signatures for] petitions.”
With Santa Barbara County passing a resolution in support of the bill, Borgas hopes IVCSD will also show their support for it. The board of directors noted the comments and will discuss the bill further in a future meeting.
After public comment, Public Works and Sustainability Director Jenna Norton introduced the parking compliance program staff and gave a brief report on the work they’ve done. According to Norton, since March 27, 600 parking citations have been issued with their fines totaling about $24,000. Of that amount only about $5,000 had been paid, with $17,000 still owed.
“Parking in the red zone is by far the biggest violation [with] 341 citations,” Norton said. “Following after that is [vehicles blocking] sidewalks, which has definitely been a huge issue that we’ve kind of had to broach carefully.”
According to Norton, 139 citations have been issued to cars blocking sidewalk access. However, she clarified a part of the issue stems from improper education to vehicle owners.
“There’s a lot more than just 139 sidewalk parking offenders, but due to the density of those violations in some areas, we just need to be careful,” Norton said. “We really plan on honing in this summer [by] trying to get property owners to educate their residents about parking in the driveway and targeting the actual houses where this is the biggest issue.”
Norton clarified that sidewalk parking offenses typically occur when tenants “park behind their housemates” in a driveway, resulting in the car blocking the sidewalk. She also highlighted that the parking compliance program so far has been able to clear sidewalk parking offenses on multiple properties including one on the 6600 block of Del Playa Drive.
Some IVCSD directors raised concerns about safety protocols for the parking compliance staff. Norton explained that the staff have had “de-escalation training and are really encouraged to leave the minute something gets heated.”
Norton then presented IVCSD’s Public Works & Sustainability annual report, which covered their efforts toward waste management, graffiti removal, volunteerism and other initiatives. Among other things, she highlighted that throughout the year, between April 2025 to April 2026, 770 lbs of trash and 201 piles of glass were picked up, 350 instances of graffiti were abated and 12,011 pounds of food scraps were composted.
“We’ve accomplished most of our goals this year, but ultimately this year was a huge success and plans for next year include really just honing in [and] perfecting existing procedures and continuing to develop this parking compliance program,” Norton said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the May 21 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
