The Goodland Coalition was formed in 2010 by a group of concerned Goleta residents seeking to uphold Goleta’s General Plan protections for large parcels zoned for agriculture. Our early successes included preventing the initiation of a General Plan amendment to allow development of Bishop Ranch.
Tom Modugno has supplied many of the photos and assembled a beautiful montage of the history of the Bishop Ranch, showing well what needs to be preserved.
Early in 2012, seeking stronger protections, the Coalition initiated a petition signature drive to place an agriculture protection measure on the fall 2012 ballot. Within 6 weeks, volunteers collected the signatures of 2,100 Goleta voters, more than enough to place the Goleta Agricultural Land Protection Measure on the ballot.
In November 2012, the Measure passed by 72%. This ensured that if Goleta’s Council rezoned any of Goleta’s five Agriculture parcels of 10 or more acres, including Bishop Ranch, it would have no effect unless it was also ratified by a vote of Goleta residents. This measure is in effect through 2032.
Since then, The Goodland Coalition has continued to advocate for preserving Goleta’s quality of life (see TGC’s Mission statement.) Among its successes was preventing the addition of a McDonald’s drive-through at the Camino Real (Costco, Home Depot) Marketplace by successfully appealing of the Planning Commission 3-2 approval.