Supervisor Das Williams was in a mood to preach. How could Santa Barbara hold itself up to the rest of the world as the birthplace of the environmental movement and the paragon of environmental virtue, he demanded, when large-scale solar operations had been all but outlawed by county zoning rules? Only in the hinterlands of the Cuyama Valley — Santa Barbara County’s parched high desert — were industrial-scale solar installations allowed, and then only on 600 acres of land.
In front of Williams and the four other county supervisors this Tuesday was an ambitious proposal to change the land-use rules to effectively legalize large-scale solar power. It was a good start, Williams said, but, “We’re in danger of perpetuating the hypocrisy by putting all our solar in North County,” he complained.
The planning document, he and all the supervisors agreed, needed to be opened up considerably to expand where industrial-scale solar operations — not to be confused with rooftop solar installations — could go. But the back-and-forth between the supervisors and their planning staff — and among themselves — made it apparent that the challenge before them was far more complicated than the flick of a switch.