Noleta
Encyclopedia
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
urban area between Goleta
Goleta, California
Goleta is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated, populated area in the county. As of the 2000 census, the Census-designated place had a total population of 55,204, however, a significant...
and Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA. It is bounded on the east by Santa Barbara and Hope Ranch
Hope Ranch, California
Hope Ranch is an unincorporated suburb of Santa Barbara, California, located in Santa Barbara County. As of the 2000 census, the area had an approximate population of 2,200. The ZIP codes are 93105 and 93110, and the community is in area code 805.-History:...
, on the west by Goleta, on the north by the Santa Ynez Mountains
Santa Ynez Mountains
The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America, and are one of the northernmost mountain ranges in Southern California.-Geography:...
and on the south by the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, and largely includes the zip code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
s 93105, 93110, and 93111. Approximately 30,000 people live in the area.
The area is called Noleta because of its history of voting "no" on incorporation with the City of Goleta (i.e. "no" to "Goleta"), and as a pun on the more famous neighborhood "North of Little Italy" in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. As it is unincorporated, the area is under county government administration. While Noleta has a history of voting "no" on incorporation, neither the City of Santa Barbara nor Goleta have attempted to annex the Noleta area. Both communities are reluctant to absorb the community because the area's tax base does not generate enough revenue to pay for the services it requires. Nevertheless both cities compete to influence the community.
The reluctance of "Noleta-ers" to incorporate is largely based on a variety of reasons including:
- reluctance to have a Goleta address
- reluctance of some home owners to incur the regulatory restrictions of either Goleta or Santa Barbara
- differing views on the numbers, density and siting of new housing in the area.
As part of the unincorporated region of Santa Barbara, residents are able to claim 'Santa Barbara, CA' as their address. This Santa Barbara mailing address is often perceived by residents to enhance property value. During the various Goleta cityhood campaigns, proponents of the city argued this was a false assumption.
2005 events
The struggle between Goleta and Santa Barbara to include the area within their sphere of influence, usually the first step towards eventual annexation, took a new twist in May 2005, when residents of the area presented a petition to Santa Barbara City Hall with 4,150 signatures, requesting inclusion in Santa Barbara's sphere of influence. Goleta officials declared in June that they had no intention of serving people outside their official city boundaries, as opposed to Santa Barbara, which did. On September 1, 2005, the issue of the future sphere of influence over the "Noleta" area was discussed by the Santa Barbara City Council at City Hall in Santa Barbara.On August 24, 2005, the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously backed a proposal to put the area officially under the city's sphere of influence. The only opposition to the proposal came from residents of mobile homes in the area, who worry that they could lose their rent protection, which they have under Santa Barbara County rules, but would potentially disappear under Santa Barbara City rules.
The petition drive to get Noleta included in the Santa Barbara sphere of influence was led by two committees, the "West Santa Barbara Committee" and the "Committee of One."
Prior to the 2008 recession
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
, pressure to build new housing in the area had been intense, due to two reasons: the area contained the largest number of undeveloped parcels on the South Coast, and there was a general lack of affordable housing in the Santa Barbara area, as the median home price in 2005 had reached approximately 1.3 million dollars. In mid-October 2005, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors authorized $43,000 to fund a growth outline for the area. Several large-scale housing projects were proposed by the county in the Noleta area, which were opposed by many local residents due to traffic and quality-of-life concerns.