Guest Commentary
Gobble Isn't Thanksgiving! (Orcutt, what is that sound?)                       
By: Ken McCalip

That gobbling sound heard in North Santa Barbara  County by local Orcutt area folks is not another  Thanksgiving, but the sound of the City of Santa  Maria slowly gobbling up areas of  greater Orcutt,  an area that has had a distinct cultural identity  from the city's from the very beginning.  The  first early settlers led by Don Patrico O'Neill, a  former Irish soldier, opened a trading center, La  Graciosa, consisting of a store and saloon around  1863 near present day Old Orcutt that by 1870 had  370 inhabitants living in surrounding shanties.    

Later, homesteaders with familiar names such as   Stubblefield, Halloway, Righetti, Twitchell, Glines,  Hobbs, and Martin soon moved to the area.  La  Graciosa's saloon accommodated the justice of the  peace, who had juristriction from the Santa Maria  River to Santa Barbara. Orcutt also had a famous  outlaw, Soloman Pico, who inhabited Soloman Peak and  ambushed travelers who came across the dusty Santa  Maria Valley.    

La Graciosa to fade to a memory until the oil boom  of 1904 revived the area and the town was renamed  Orcutt in honor of William Orcutt, a Union Oil  geologist. Cowboys and oil workers bellied up to the  bars and the boom attracted prostitutes, many  saloons, drinking and gambling. Slowly over the  years, the town was tamed.    

It is this colorful western oil town history that  makes the greater Ocutt area separate and unique  from its neighbor Santa Maria. Orcutt still has a  cultural center in the Old Town area that is slowly  improving and through the years the greater Orcutt  area has been content with being looked after by the  County of Santa Barbara as an unincorporated area of  the county with excellent county services.     

But the growth of the city of Santa Maria with its  eye on the Bradley property in the Orcutt foothills  points out a need to re-examine the relationship of  the Orcutt area with the County of Santa Barbara.  Can this relationship withstand the growth pressures  from the city and protect the semi-rural atmosphere  that most in Orcutt apparently want to preserve?    

Orcutt's citizens have always been an independent  lot and this independent spirit was shown a number  of years ago when these citizens appeared many times  before the Public Utility Commission, unlike the  city council of Santa Maria, to turn down the state  water project because it required them to pay for  water for new housing projects. Later, an Orcutt  citizens' group sued the county to insist that the  Orcutt General Plan provision be upheld that  required all new developments to have an adequate  water supply. This worked for a short period to  control excessive growth, but the city now uses the  sale of  state water to help promote city growth and  to help annex areas of Orcutt. This new reality can  be seen in the recent gobbling up of the Adams'  commercial property by the city of Santa Maria.  Under this new reality the Orcutt area gets the new  growth and the City gets the new tax basis. The city  now controls with water sales most growth  decisions  for Orcutt. Doesn't seem quite fair?    

In addition to not being fair to Orcutt, it is not  fair to city water rate payers as the proceeds from  the sale of the city's share of state water to  Orcutt projects is not used to lower city water  rates. It is also not fair when Orcutt voters are  not allowed to vote on annexation with a  questionable deadline decision by the city that  prevented a vote on this issue.    

It would seem that the Orcutt area with its unique  and separate historical identity should be able to  control its own destiny. Should be able to determine   growth issues. Should be able to determine new  shopping center issues and keep the tax basis for  itself.   Should be able to determine housing density that  keeps the semi-rural character of the area in tack.  Should be able to determine if we do not want grid  locked intersections or do want a reasonable lack of  crowds as well as open spaces for us all to enjoy.    

If the current relationship with the county can not  preserve the Orcutt area's identity then it is  time to explore other relationships with the county  including city-hood, a large service district, or  other relationships that we can afford that are  somewhere in between city-hood and what we have now  that preserve what should be Orcutt's sphere of  influence. The gobbling sound needs to stop and at  the very least we should begin now to discuss these  issues.      

Ken McCalip is a Orcutt native who holds bachelor  and doctorate degrees in history, cultural geography  and law from various California universities. He can  be reached at foxmt.one@verizon.net.