Homeowners and Hiker Butt Heads over Efforts to Remove Popular Pools
Though the hot springs in Montecito have existed since geologic time, they became a worldwide phenomenon during the pandemic when social media laid breadcrumbs to their exact location, past gated homes and up a rock-strewn trail. A dozen soaking pools and the occasional campfire ring testify to the hundreds of visitors who come day and night, facts that make homeowners who lived through the devastating Tea Fire in 2008 very nervous. Vending Accessories
Things came to a head recently, when reports came down from the hills of residents dismantling pools and a hiker who caught them red-handed. Videos record verbal taunting back and forth and some scuffling as the video-maker passes on the narrow trail in an attempt to film faces.
Conflict is the last thing on the mind of anyone relaxing at the hot springs. A recent visit found only the sound of gushing water and quiet conversations. One man said he often came for the healthful benefits of the sulfur-y water.
The springs lie within the boundaries of Los Padres National Forest, though the trailhead on Mountain Drive starts in the County of Santa Barbara. As head of Los Padres’ Santa Barbara District, it falls to Ranger Daryl Hodges to broker a peace between anxious homeowners and longtime pool users.
The pools vary from practically paved to ad hoc tumbles of rock and silt. | Credit: Courtesy
No one’s been authorized or has permits to do anything up there, said Hodges, who added that pools impounding the waters is indeed considered a change to the flow of the stream, which is one of the arguments expressed to remove them. Back in the day, he had heard, tarps were used to hold the water and then removed.
“I am open to talking with all of the community members about all of their concerns. What we need to do is figure out how to collaborate,” Hodges said, “how to manage the springs as a group: agencies, organizations, nonprofits. This is not going away.” And, Hodges said, he did not want anyone to get hurt.
Das Williams agreed. The county supervisor for the Montecito area, Williams said, “I think it’s time to step back and respond to each other rationally, not emotionally. I would also say, treat the area and each other with respect.”
Williams noted that most of the pool users were locals: “They have a right to use the trail, too,” he said, “just as the trail users need to park in a way that does not destroy private property. And they need to definitely stay away from anything that would cause a fire because that would be a real disaster.”
The fabled pools cause parking issues on the streets, in part due to the white edge line added along Riven Rock Road, which restricts parking. Previously, the hordes had parked anywhere during the pandemic, a chaos that slipped onto Mountain Drive. Homeowners added barriers to protect their landscaping and driveways. This led to a lawsuit between several homeowners and the county over the road shoulder, with the courts finding that the public right of way belonged to the county.
According to Chris Sneddon, the head of Public Works and the county’s Roads Commissioner, about a dozen of the properties near the trailhead will have to reestablish the road shoulder. This might add 12-15 more parking spaces in the coming months, Sneddon said, to the eight that a homeowner has long provided at the trailhead. Where the topography, trees, or driveways make the width too narrow for a car, a walkable shoulder is a viable alternative, Sneddon said.
A bright-white painted line delineates the area to park legally, outside the lane of travel. “This ensures full access for emergency services, as well as safe ingress and egress to the area,” Sneddon said. “We don’t want to see people getting tickets or getting towed, but the roadway needs to remain clear, so people should only park where they can do so safely and on the right side of the line.”
A second homeowner recently stepped up to voluntarily clear new parking and walking spaces, Williams said. Hikers, however, have piled their cars into the entire space, as many as 20 last weekend.
“He’s applying for an encroachment permit to protect his driveway line of sight,” Williams said, and for a curb or guardrail to protect the pedestrian pathway that’s now being occupied by vehicles. Williams thought the owner was doing the right thing and should get the permit. “And we don’t just deny a permit,” he added. “We would say, make a change that we can support.”
For District Ranger Hodges, his main concern is any campfire without a minder: “If it’s untended, it could get away during a wind event. There’s the potential for a major wildfire back there, and people’s houses could be affected.”
What Hodges envisions as a potential solution is education in the form of interpretive signs. “They would tell people to pack out their trash, the fire restrictions, the history of the area. They would give the understanding that this is a cherished area and should be treated as well as could be.”
[Update: June 11, 2024] On Saturday, residents near the springs gathered for a different education session when they met with Roy Lee, the incoming county supervisor for the Montecito area, prepared with stories of what they’ve endured. Also present were Ranger Hodges and representatives from fire and law enforcement, in a meeting at Cold Spring School organized by Joe Cole, an attorney who represented homeowners in the suit against the county and a shareholder in this newspaper.
The strife surrounding the hot springs went beyond the parking in front of their homes, the residents said, though that remained a big problem, especially when RVs and vans parked overnight. Their privacy in their homes was violated, as was their safety and security. People had broken into their homes, jumped into their swimming pools, graffitied their mailboxes, used their water hoses, and peered through their windows. Residents found windows pried open and human excrement on the ground.
“It’s no longer the charming hiking trail it’s been for so long,” one resident said. (They had asked that their names not be used.) Another called the pools an “attractive nuisance.” They all wanted to hear from Hodges what he planned to do about it.
The ranger answered that his district had neither the capacity nor the bandwidth to maintain the popular hot springs as they should be. They had an enforcement officer for the first time since he was assigned to the Santa Barbara District in 2021, Hodges said, but they’d have to catch someone actively creating pools to have an enforcement action. As for permits, for either the lawful construction or destruction of the pools, federal environmental and Fish and Wildlife regulations would be involved; permitting would take from six months to two years.
Hodges also spoke of the fire dangers, saying that they’d extended the ban on open fires in the front country for another two years. While one resident acknowledged that the trail was public and could be used by the public, another said they should not forget that the Tea Fire was started by 10 young people, who “got away with it.” A wind-blown fire would reach from the springs to their homes in 20 minutes, she said, and the Painted Cave fire burned from the 154 to the 101 in 90 minutes.
Although residents can call the California Highway Patrol about parked cars, calls about people and fire are also routed to the fire department. Montecito Fire Chief David Neels, a 35-year veteran firefighter, said that when law enforcement can’t respond immediately, his firefighters are sent up the trail. On May 10, he recounted, they made the 50-minute hike to speak with someone in a tent to let them know they could not have a campfire. On May 30, firefighters went after six people carrying lighted tiki torches. “We removed the torches, but education was a challenge,” Neels said. “They just hadn’t experienced the disasters the way we have.”
Neels emphasized that they needed residents’ help when fire was involved. He added that the Sheriff’s Office was making sure its officers knew they could enforce ticketing laws in the National Forest.
The neighbors also heard from a couple of members of the Santa Barbara Trails Council. The nonprofit’s president, Otis Calef, explained that the problem wasn’t just theirs, it was countywide. The group’s executive director, Mark Wilkinson, confirmed the residents’ observations that license plates showed many hikers were from out of town. Wilkinson said their interns spoke with hikers at the trailhead and that 30-40 percent were out-of-towners. They’d counted 45-50 people an hour coming to the trailhead on the weekend, Wilkinson said. (This article mistakenly quoted Supervisor Das Williams as saying a “majority” of hikers were locals; he actually said “thousands.”)
Lee, who’d opened the meeting saying he was there to listen and learn, ended it by saying, “You can count on me to work with all the agencies. This is not the last time. Come January, I hope we will have a solid plan,” Lee said. “I hope we see more smiles and less frowns.”
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