Historic Trust looks to restore mill,
groves
The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation made a
presentation to about twenty-five interested persons at the Old Mission Santa Inés in Solvang June 4 on a proposed project it wants to
develop next to the mission.
The Trust is seeking public input on a plan to lease Lot
72 from the City of Solvang. The lot lies directly south of the mission and is
adjacent to a piece of property that has been designated as historically
significant by state and federal authorities.
The Trust has already acquired two pieces of property to
the east of the mission that once were used as productive agricultural land by
early settlers in the valley.
The property additionally has two building that once
housed mills used for the production of grain and wool products.
Jarrell Jackman, Executive
Director for the Trust, Steve Treanor, a consultant,
and Michael Imwalle, an archaeologist employed by the
Trust, described plans that are still being formed to lease the lot from
Solvang. Jackman
discussed the Trust’s intent to preserve the property as open space and to make
use of the total of 95 acres of property, which would include Lot 72, as olive
groves and trails for public use.
The Trust’s representatives said that the property would
become a part of the state’s park system, just as the Mission La Purisima in Lompoc had.
The Solvang City Council had already decided to allow a
lease of Lot 72 after closed-door negotiations with the Trust, said City
Manager Brad Vidro.
Some members of the audience voiced concerns regarding the
closed-door nature of the negotiations and their lack of input in the
process.
Jackman
tried to assuage those concerns as he explained that the public would be
closely involved in the process of deciding what the proposed park would contain
and how it would operate.
The Santa Barbara organization already has obtained title
to two adjacent pieces of property directly east of the mission and south of
the intersection of Alamo Pintado Road and Mission
Drive. The easternmost piece of property
had what Jackman described as a fulling
mill, a specialized mill that was designed by the early settlers to convert
woven raw wool into a soft fiber fabric more suitable for clothing manufacture
by removing natural oils and to thicken the fabric by felting.
Jackman
said that this fulling mill is the only one of its
kind in the western United States.
Representatives of the church have already provided
easements to allow access from the Mission Road entrance of the mission to the
proposed lot to the east.
Tentative plans for the parcels include an olive grove,
the rehabilitation of the mill structures, and walking trails of about three
miles within the proposed park.
Treanor told
those gathered that “we believe we can be honorable partners” in the
project.
Jackman also explained that, “Our purpose here is to let you know
who we are.”