We hope you enjoyed the holidays.

We’re ready for an exciting 2014 and would like to hear from you. Please join us at a H.O.T. Committee meeting near you:

Thursday, January 9, 2014 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
North County H.O.T. Committee Meeting
Rabobank
1554 S. Broadway, Santa Maria (on the corner of Broadway and Battles Road)

Friday, January 10, 2014 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
South County H.O.T. Committee Meeting
Union Bank’s Santa Barbara Community Partners Center
11 E. Carrillo, Santa Barbara

Our Housing, Open space and Transportation (H.O.T.) Committee meetings are open to all, and all who come are welcome to comment about issues of concern to them.

The issues we'd like your input on are HOV lanes, County Oil Production Tax and proposed DOGGR Fracking Regulations:

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on Highway 101 in the Summerland through Montecito area. Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) has scheduled a decision on this for January 16. SBCAG is considering eliminating the HOV designation for the congested northernmost four miles of the project. This could lead to a showdown with CalTrans that could scuttle the highway-widening project that is meant to relieve the bottleneck on 101. SB CAN and other groups, including CalTrans, have expressed opposition eliminating HOV lanes.

County Oil Production Tax. The Board of Supervisors has scheduled a decision on this for January 21. To see the County Grand Jury Report on the issue, click here.

Fracking Regulations. The California Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) will present its proposed fracking regulations during a hearing scheduled for January 13 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room in Santa Maria. For the Sierra Club's talking points on this issue, click here. For the proposed regulations, click here.
Hope to see you this week!

Ken Hough
Executive Director
[email protected]
www.sbcan.org
805.563.0463