A group of Isla Vistans with one opinion or another about the unique effort to form a special district through the State Legislature continue to bounce between local government meetings, squeezing out stamps of approval from both the Board of Supervisors and the City of Goleta on Tuesday. With deadlines looming in Sacramento, supporters look to secure as much local support as possible, with opponents right behind them.
AB 3, as I.V.'s self-governance bill is known, is the work of Assemblymember Das Williams. Among other stakeholders, he jumped at the opportunity to bring change to Isla Vista after last year’s riots and shooting rampage. At the time, a number of students had spent years studying the possibility of establishing a community service district (CSD) in the densely populated unincorporated area as a way to allow residents to create their own destiny, a hotly contested topic that dates back decades.
Isla Vista suffered a financial blow in 2012 after the state opted to dissolve the redevelopment agencies. In recent years, about $6 million had gone to beefing up Isla Vista in terms of landscape, sidewalks, and newer housing. In fact, the I.V. redevelopment agencies generated more than $40 million over the span of 22 years. In 2011, Assemblymember Das Williams strongly supported bills that killed redevelopment agencies, saying at the time if “he had a choice between schools and redevelopment agencies, I’m taking schools.” Supervisor Steve Lavagnino pointed that out during Tuesday’s hearing, reading from an old newspaper article.