More Than 40 Percent of County Adults Are Fully Vaccinated

••• “Vaccine supply has begun to outweigh the demand in the county, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. […] As of Sunday, 41.5% of the county’s eligible population—those ages 16 and up—was fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, Do-Reynoso said. Additionally, just over 47% of the county’s entire population has received at least one dose of a two-dose vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.” —Noozhawk

••• “At a time when the state is putting increasing pressure on Santa Barbara to build housing, two new state bills are currently in committee that have the potential to dismantle Santa Barbara’s single-family homes and replace them with multi-unit housing. Senate Bill 9 allows homeowners to put a duplex on single-family lots or split them without requiring a hearing or approval from the local government. Where a single-family home stood, eight units of housing can be built. Senate Bill 10 would allow cities to adopt an ordinance to zone any parcel of land, including single-family homes, for up to 10 units of housing if it is located in a ‘transit-rich or jobs-rich area’ or is an urban infill site. Both bills will not require environmental analysis.” Either one would be a disaster for this area. —Independent

••• “Theo Kracke, the CEO of Paradise Retreats said he won his legal battle with the city [over vacation rentals] for the second time. […] The city of Santa Barbara had more than 100 short-term vacation rentals in its coastal zone in 2015. The number dropped to single digits after city leaders voted unanimously to ban vacation rentals in residential zones and to treat them like hotels in coastal zones, limiting the number of permitted rentals allowed. Critics said the city was violating the California Coastal Act. […] The city could petition the California Supreme Court to hear the case or vote on new enforcement measures pertaining to short-term rentals in Santa Barbara’s coastal zones.” —KEYT

••• “A zoning permit for Central Coast Agriculture Inc., a 30-acre cannabis ‘hoop-house’ operation in wine country west of Buellton, was approved by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors this week, just hours after the grower signed off on a comprehensive odor-control plan that his critics had been requesting for months.” Why not make every cannabis farm do such a plan? —Independent

••• “Multiple dogs (15+) in the Storke Ranch neighborhood have become ill after Kitson distributed mulch from the county supply,” reported an Edhat reader. If you care to brave the site’s comments, there’s a response from the county Public Works Department about how the mulch was replaced.

••• From the Independent: “Meagan Harmon Appointed to California Coastal Commission […] Santa Barbara City Councilmember Won Seat, Beating Out Supervisor Das Williams,” who faced some vocal opposition due to his coddling of the cannabis industry.

••• “Most grocery store workers in Santa Barbara soon are set to receive ‘hazard pay’—an extra $5 an hour for up to 60 days—because they worked during the Covid-19 pandemic.” The compelling part of Noozhawk‘s article comes from councilmember Mike Jordan, who wondered why grocery workers are getting singled out over other professions: “He mentioned that his daughter, a nurse, has to shower off with a garden hose when she comes home at night after working in a Covid-19 wing because she doesn’t want to infect her parents.” She’s a hero, for sure, but can we all just get it through our heads that the virus is transmitted through the air we breathe, not jumping off of surfaces?

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