Just before Isla Vistans took to the streets to celebrate Deltopia, the latest legislative effort to establish a governing mechanism in Isla Vista received another unforgiving review from Santa Barbara’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a board of seven city, county, and special district representatives.
Last week’s meeting echoed previous ones, as commissioners voiced qualms about Assemblymember Das Williams’s bill, AB 3, which seeks to establish a community service district (CSD) in the unincorporated college town. The LAFCO board voted 6-1 to oppose the bill unless it’s amended.
Commissioners’ biggest beef with AB 3 is that it would bypass their agency, which was set up decades ago by the state to implement special districts. And those special districts, they argued, do not contain the array of services outlined in this bill, such as a tenant mediation program, planning commission, parking district, police officers, and graffiti abatement.