Noozhawk
Carpinteria residents will get the chance to vote on whether to approve Venoco Inc.”˜s slant-drilling project next June after a late-night decision Tuesday by the Carpinteria City Council. The council voted unanimously to put the item on the June 8, 2010, primary election ballot, but the only other option the city had was to approve the project outright.
Ballots have started arriving in local mailboxes for Santa Barbara’s first vote-by-mail election, but the campaigning is far from over. Once they receive their ballots, voters can vote anytime until Nov. 3. Ballots come with a prepaid-postage return envelope and a voter information pamphlet, according to the City Clerk’s Office.
All it takes is one. At a pro-Measure B meeting Wednesday hosted by the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara, it became more apparent that citizen ballot initiatives to lower building-height limits often have been reactions to buildings residents don’t like. In the 1920s, it was The Granada. In the 1960s, it was the nine-story condominium complexes proposed for the area that is now Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. Now, it’s the Chapala One complex.