At the foot of Castillo Street, seven weeping ficus trees stand along Cabrillo Boulevard. Beneath them is a fenced, dry kiddie pool next to Los Baños del Mar. The pool has appeared on Santa Barbara's waterfront maps since 1939 and was last improved in 2007. In 2014 the city shut it after finding it was losing about 2,000 gallons of water a day.
For twelve years, the question of what goes there has kept running into two things already on the site. Black-crowned Night Herons and Snowy Egrets nest in the ficus overhead. The ground below sits close to a Chumash village site. The latest proposal, a Chumash cultural center and tomol house, is the first serious idea that works with both of them and doesn't need any water.
Twelve years and three price tags
According to the Santa Barbara Independent, early plans for a water feature went through city review boards in 2018 and got some support. The cost of bringing the site up to code led the city to shelve them. The project went on hold again in 2020 during the pandemic. A 2023 study then priced each way of putting water back:
- Repairing the existing pool: more than $1.5 million
- Building a replacement pool: well over $2.6 million
- A splash pad instead: at least $1.2 million
- Extras required with any wading pool: a $400,000 lifeguard stand, plus $1 million for restrooms and changing rooms
Add up the last two lines and a rebuilt wading pool runs past $4 million before maintenance. That is several times the cost of the cheapest water option, for a pool small children use. The Independent also reported that city planners' testing found any wading pool or splash pad would take much more work and money than first expected.
Money is only part of the constraint. Any water feature that draws large crowds would also affect the herons and egrets that raise their young in the West Beach trees every year from March through September.
Seven ficus trees and a fenced nursery
Birds of Los Baños has tracked it for years. In June 2019, Mark Holmgren counted 23 Black-crowned Night Heron nests and 10 Snowy Egret nests in the ficus. On May 5, 2021, Audubon birders Holmgren and Lori Gaskin counted 37 heron nests and 6 egret nests. In two years the heron count rose by more than half, while the egret count fell from ten to six.
The site also describes the fenced area under the trees as a refuge for fledglings that have left the nest but can't yet feed themselves. The empty pool has become a kind of nursery floor for the colony. Testimony on the same site notes that both species are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and that local breeding records for the colony go back to 2004.
The colony has already changed the site's plans once. In 2018 the city set aside $152,240 for early planning of a splash playground just south of the nesting trees. Those plans were later revised to address cost, stormwater and bird protection. Gail Osherenko produced, directed, wrote and shot the documentary Birds of Los Baños, and Jim Knowlton edited it. It premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on January 19, 2020. In an account on the Blue Ocean Productions page for the film, Knowlton says the City Council agreed to protect the birds and change the project design after the film drew attention to the colony.
So any new plan for the pool has to work with a colony whose nesting season covers most of the year, including the busy summer months at West Beach.
The proposal that needs no water
On October 15, Parks and Recreation Director Jill Zachary and Project Planner Holly Garcin updated the Harbor Commission on the site. Before the hearing, more than 20 letters had asked the commission to drop the water-feature idea and plan a Chumash cultural center. About a dozen more community members spoke in support at the meeting. The commission backed the alternative.
The idea comes from Harbor Commissioner Spenser Jaimes, the city's first commissioner of Chumash descent, whose father is a tomol captain in Santa Barbara. The Independent reported that he has support from County Supervisors Laura Capps and Roy Lee and from City Councilmembers Oscar Gutierrez and Kristen Sneddon. He described the goal to KEYT:
"a place for us to have canoes there and a place to really celebrate and host people to show them our culture and immerse them in an experience that's more than a museum and looking at walls."
The site has a history that suits the idea. The city's certified Coastal Land Use Plan identifies Burton Mound as part of the larger Chumash village of Syujtún. It separately places a Chumash village site near Castillo Street and West Cabrillo Boulevard, a short walk from the pool.
Other speakers explained what the space could do, as the Independent reported. Chumash artist John Khus said the public could learn about Chumash culture there and see the local redwood-plank tomol canoes on display. "It would be a wonderful way to help people understand that the Chumash have been here," he said. Selena Smith, co-founder and dive safety officer of Ocean Origins, a tribally led organization focused on Indigenous marine stewardship, called it a "great idea to develop the property into an educational space." Chumash community member Vanessa Hernandez told the commission the tomol "represents an important part of our Chumash history, identity, and our ancestral connection with the ocean."
Several Chumash answers to the same question
The hearing also showed that the Chumash community does not have a single position on the site. Joseph Valencia, a Santa Barbara native and tomol builder, told the commission he wasn't sure a cultural center is what the community wants. He said the tomol should "be in the water, not a cultural center." He also asked the city to keep the wading pool, which his Chumash grandmother blessed when it opened in 1939. "If my Chumash brothers want to build a culture center there, it should exist with the pool, because that was a gift for the children from us," he said, according to the Independent.
Annette Cordero, a retired English professor and member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, urged the city to consult a "broad section of Chumash communities," the Independent reported. "We are several different bands that exist in this locality," she said, "and we don't all share the same beliefs and the same attitudes."
The city hasn't committed to anything yet. Garcin said there is no determined project and that the city wants to "reenvision the space" as a public resource for community recreation. Zachary told KEYT the city hopes "to learn from community members what they want and what they need in all of our city parks and recreation facilities." Councilmember Sneddon said what excited her most was that "the idea was brought forward from members of the Chumash community."
Between now and 2027
Zachary pointed to the citywide Parks and Recreation Master Plan as the place where these ideas will be sorted out. The city calls it its first citywide master-planning effort in more than four decades. KEYT reported that the plan's outreach includes input on projects that recognize Chumash history, especially where villages once stood. Here is what's coming up for anyone who walks past the site:
- Through Sunday, November 22: the city's online Parks and Recreation community survey is open, linked from the master plan page. The city says the results will be summarized and presented to the City Council. ETC Institute is separately running a statistically valid survey of a representative sample of residents.
- Every March through September: the herons and egrets nest in the ficus, so the next season begins in March.
- 2027: a presentation on the wading pool and the park ideas goes to the City Council.
Until then, the closest place to see a tomol is down the harbor. The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has one on display, built by and on loan from the present-day Chumash Maritime Association. From the museum, it's an easy walk back along Cabrillo to the seven ficus at Castillo Street.
If you own property near West Beach, plans like this one shape how a home is described and valued, from what's on the walk to the water to what the neighbors will be using in a few years. Sharon Jordano follows these waterfront decisions closely and can explain how they apply to your home. Request a Private Home Valuation to start that conversation.
