More significantly from an economic perspective, the only additional
new housing construction in I.V. between 1972 and 1989 was the
Santa Ynez Apartments on Storke Campus that holds about 600
people and the fifty four-bedroom-plus houses built with Measure
T water permits during 1989, which hold perhaps 500 people.
And because three-to-four additional residents are supported
in the area by each added UCSB student (according to the UCSB
Long-Term Development Report, 1974), these enrollment increases
added a great deal of upward pressure on housing costs.
In
1977, the IVCC asked the County to hold public hearings on the
enrollment issue during the period of rapid rent increases.
But newly elected County Supervisor Bill Wallace, an I.V. resident
who began his political career as a two-term member of the IVCC
in the early 1970s, didn't support the request and the hearings
weren't held. I.V. community leaders where shocked by Wallace's
response.
By the mid-1980s, UCSB over-enrollment had become a major controversy
throughout South County. Wallace finally started challenging
UCSB over-enrollment during his third re-election campaign in
1984.
Also during Wallace's first term, a plan to turn Camino Pescadero
Road, a major North-South artery in I.V., into a pedestrian
mall was rejected by the County when Wallace's only "environmentalist"
ally on the Board of Supervisors at the time, Bob Hedlund from
Lompoc, failed to provide the third vote needed. The plan had
been supported by over 75% of the voters in two advisory elections
conducted by the IVCC and by over 95% of the residents along
Camino Pescadero Road, but strongly opposed by a coalition of
I.V. businesses and homeowners.
Because this was the only time Hedlund didn't vote with Wallace
on an environmental issue in his four years on the board, there
was much speculation in I.V. that Hedlund had taken the fall
on this issue for Wallace. Hedlund later said that Wallace had
not asked for his support for the Camino Pescadero Mall. The
community didn't bother to take another auto-reduction plan
to the County for several more years.
In 1983, the IVCC was successful in lobbying the County to add
painted bike lanes in the downtown area, over the heavy opposition
of the owners of the Isla Vista Market and the S.O.S. Liquor
Store, who complained about the loss of on-street parking spaces.
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