L.A. billionaire heavyweight developer Rick Caruso is racing the clock, as he seeks county approval for a proposed, high-end retail souk at his Rosewood Miramar Beach resort -- before a looming, big change at SB's Board of Supervisors.
The stunning implosion of a hearing on the project last week before the Montecito Planning Commission, the most favorable venue for neighbors opposed to the infelicitous, planned shopping playground for the über-wealthy, gave a major boost to Caruso's effort.
He wants final authorization for his scheme before the start of 2025, when a more skeptical, newly-elected Roy Lee will replace the pliant, transactional and voter-rejected Das Williams as supervisor for the First District, where the resort resides.
On a new episode of Newsmakers TV, Josh Molina recounts the dramatic moments when a legal mouthpiece for Caruso performed a Perry Mason maneuver at the hearing, wielding documentary evidence that commission member Sandy Stahl had been colluding with a community opponent of the retail center - without disclosing, as required, her ex parte communications in the matter.
Caruso is proposing a couple dozen living units for resort employees in the project, a kind of political fig leaf which has enabled friendly county officials to deem the entire undertaking a "housing" proposal, and thus in their purview. Next stop is the county Planning Commission, after which it is likely to move to the Board of Supervisors, which Lee will be joining in January, following his unlikely upset of Williams in the primary election last March.
Now it seems likely that Caruso will get his way, with an expected assist from Das, however.
Indy staff reporter Callie Fausey also joins the genial host, with an update on that scandal at Santa Barbara Charter School, which at the 11th hour found a new insurer, averting a shutdown, following sickening disclosures that a longtime teacher allegedly had secretly video recorded young students in a changing room. After being charged with a multitude of felonies, teacher Steven Schapansky skipped town while out on bail, disappeared near Yosemite, and remains at large.
Callie also reprises her reporting on that scary lockdown of La Colina Junior High this week, following gang violence at Alta Vista Alternative High School, which is housed on campus, as well as providing a breakdown of the county's tortuously complex plans for a new system of back-up alternative power hubs, in the event of emergency-related shutdowns of the local electrical grid.
And Ryan P. Cruz joins the gang to dissect the city's intricate if convoluted bid to thread the needle between the state's unrelenting demands for more housing construction, and the matchless aesthetics that have made Santa Barbara such an exquisite town, by means of new, expedited planning guidelines that could speed up permitting processes, while preserving architectural and design essentials for tasteful and timeless style,
Ryan also goes behind the scenes to talk about the personal emotions that drove and shaped his reporting for this week's Indy cover story on the widespread importance of Dia de Muertos celebrations to local families and communities.
Plus: a blood-boiling rant about the sheer cowardice of the owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, for overriding professional staff decisions to endorse Kamala Harris in the presidential race, because of their cowering fear of -- or oligarchic loyalty to -- Donald Trump.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
Check out our latest, Episode 461, via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the program every weeknight at 8 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the show at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Image: Rick Caruso (behind) strolls the beach near his Miramar resort with man's best friend (Montecito Journal photo).
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