HANG GLIDERS, PARAGLIDERS

City may open two landing sites

1/27/00

By ANTONIO A. PRADO e-mail: aprado@newspress.com

NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Colorful hang gliders and paragliders floating through Santa Barbara's picturesque skies have long been a familiar sight.

Despite public fascination with the flyers, however, it is illegal for them to land their craft at city parks and beaches.

That may soon change. City parks and recreation commissioners unanimously endorsed a plan Wednesday to allow hang glider and paraglider landings at Parma Park and East Beach.

The plan must next be considered by the City Council's Ordinance Committee, then return to commissioners for a final review before being sent the full council for approval.

"We are very, very excited about having gotten to this point," said Dr. Glenn E. Miller, a past president of the Santa Barbara Soaring Association and chairman of the group's Site Preservation Committee. "It's been a long and arduous process."

The proposed change would mark a turnaround in the city's legal view of the daredevil sport.

Launching or landing any kind of aircraft in city parks or beaches has been banned because such activities have been considered dangerous. So much so, that city officials wouldn't even allow a team of local professional parachutists to fly into a waterfront 4th of July celebration.

But now, city officials are "of the opinion that hang gliding and paragliding is a legitimate recreational activity that warrants recognition," Parks and Recreation Director Richard C. Johns stated in a report to commissioners.

Hang gliders and paragliders currently land at Elings Park without fear of citation by police because it is in unincorporated territory and thus outside of city jurisdiction.

They typically take off from locations near La Cumbre Peak or from a spot above Rattlesnake Canyon that is known among the enthusiasts as Skyport Park. The city recently turned over that property to the U.S. Forest Service in order to allow legal hang glider and paraglider launches.

City parks and recreation officials recommend allowing landings at the west end of Parma Park in the northern part of town and the lesser-used, easternmost section of East Beach between the Andree Clark Bird Refuge outfall and the Clark Estate wall.

The Parma Park landing site has "been a historic use there for 20 years or thereabouts," said Jeff Cope, assistant parks and recreation director. "We've had no conflicts there."

He added that the edge of East Beach where landings would be allowed is not used as frequently by beachgoers as areas near Stearns Wharf and Chase Palm Park.

John Greynald, regional director for the U.S. Hang Gliding Association, told commissioners that winter is the peak season for his sport -- which is also a time when beaches are used much less.

He doesn't expect that legalization of hang gliding and paragliding in Santa Barbara will increase the number of pilots who land locally.

The sport's largest growth in popularity happened in the late 1970s, Greynald said. While new pilots join all the time and it has become more popular with spectators, there has been little recent growth in the number of people taking up the sport, he added.

In a letter to commissioners, Miller and current soaring association president Jeremiah Sobenes said that this kind of recreation has long been associated with Santa Barbara.

A demonstration of that fact, they noted, is a photograph of Arroyo Burro Beach published on Page 11 of GTE's current local telephone directory, showing a hang glider flying over the Douglas Family Preserve.

Johns said weatherproof signs would be installed at Skyport Park showing the city's legal landing areas.

Cope added that if landings are legalized at East Beach, a nautical mile marker used by boaters would have to be removed for safety reasons.

That could be moved back, out of harm's way, and enlarged so boaters don't lose that visual guide, he suggested.