Embarcadero Municipal Improvement District

District Office, 224 Vereda Leyenda, Goleta, CA 93117
(805) 968-5885, Tel · (805) 685-1081, FAX

About Us

EMID is a State chartered municipal governmental entity, the only known special district in California with authority over enforcement of C.C.R.'s (covenants, conditions, and restrictions) on property in its boundaries. Except for general land use control, EMID has most of the powers of a city.

  • The District provides multiple municipal public services controlled by a voter to board member ratio lower than any city in the County, some 60 voters to each Board member.
  • EMID derives its funds from the real property tax dollars collected by the County of Santa Barbara from EMID property owners. By State mandate, the County returns to EMID residents a portion of these revenues. The amount of these revenue varies from year-to-year. During the tax year which ended June 30, 2003, EMID's revenue was reduced due to an assessment value appeal by the Bacara Resort and Spa. Anticipated revenues for FY2004/2005 are about $250,000.
  • Historically, in California, Special Districts deliver public services more efficiently and at less cost than either cities or counties, and EMID is an example. Where EMID can contract or provide for services at a net savings to its residents, such as for trash collection, insect abatement, community clean up, and the like, EMID has rendered these services and charged only amounts necessary to amortize the contract and management costs.
  • EMID also serves its taxpayers as the only assured conduit to have County real property taxes collected from EMID property owners applied to municipal necessities within EMID's boundaries. This is because of the State mandate requiring that the County pay back a portion of the collected county real property taxes to EMID

SERVICES PROVIDED

Over the years since EMID's Directors became popularly elected at large, EMID has become a multiple service Municipal Improvement District giving its residents as much, or as little, governmental services as the majority want. EMID has provided, and/or provides the following services:

  • Wastewater collection and disposal
  • Refuse collection and street sweeping
  • Local park and recreation services administering acquired park properties for resident use as well as maintaining a Community Center
  • Pedestrian and equestrian trails and facilities
  • Public meeting and events facilities
  • Public right-of-way beautification and maintenance
  • Youth summer work program
  • Public monument and bulletin board and facility maintenance
  • Road drainage and flood control, accomplished with public works projects done by joint powers agreement with County departments and/or State agencies
  • Pest control
  • Fire hazard and flood abatement
  • Animal control
  • Land use standards and enforcement, accomplished primarily through enforcement of CC&Rs adopted, and changed periodically, by home owners. EMIDAC members are appointed by EMID and delegated responsibility for CC&R administration and enforcement. EMID acts as an appeals board, much the same way as the Santa Barbara City Council or County Board of Supervisors act with respect to their Planning Commissions
  • Public utilities, public health, safety, police and emergency services. Past efforts in this area have brought Cable TV to our District, removed the rural phone service designation, provided emergency flood protection, augmented police protection, and emergency fire evacuation services
  • Representing the voters of Embarcadero in relationships with the County and other Government entities

FORMATION, PRINCIPAL ACT AND FUNDING

The District was formed in 1960 by a special Act of the California State Legislature and operates pursuant to the Embarcadero Municipal Improvement District Act (Chapter 81, Stats. 1960), which has had several amendments.

EMID services are primarily funded by property taxes.(i.e. the County rebates a portion of the taxes collected back to EMID). EMID is a "property tax" based special district, compared to enterprise special districts such as Goleta West Sanitary District (GWSD) that are primarily funded by user fees. By a Joint Powers agreement between EMID and GWSD, GWSD collects user fees from EMID residents hooked up to EMID's sewer lines in exchange for servicing these lines and transporting the collected sewage. Over the years as other enterprise type services, such as trash collection, were provided by the District, EMID has collected "user fees".

Initially there were four bond issue series, three of which were paid in full in 1996 by the property owners and one which was never issued or sold These bonds totaled $1,647,000, plus interest. They were for storm drainage facilities, a water project and a sewer project. The one never issued was approved for a small craft harbor.

In the future, the improvements built by these bonds will need to be renovated, and the District may look to bond financing to insure the continued quality of life in the District.

EMID serves approximately 155 wastewater connections and renders other services to approximately 500 residents of the District. Sewage is transported by the Goleta West Sanitary District and disposed of in the Goleta Sanitary District Wastewater Treatment Plant.

SIZE AND LOCATION

The District is approximately 1,100 acres and serves 155 home sites on 1 acre, or larger, lots in the western portion of the Goleta Valley. On the mountain side of the freeway, about 1/5 of the District has home sites, with the remainder being either in avocado orchards or currently designated for agricultural. On the beach side of the District, the Bacara, a large scale destination hotel and spa facility, has been built. The County designated "Urban Limit Line" divides the District at the freeway, with most of the District (on the mountain side of the freeway) being on the "Rural" side of the line. The Urban Limit Line also serves as the westernmost boundary of the new city of Goleta. This means that the Bacara is in both the city and the district.

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

EMID is governed by a five (5) member board of directors elected at large. Directors are elected in even year November elections. Directors serve four year terms (or if appointed to fill a vacancy, the balance of a term until the next regularly scheduled election). Directors are compensated twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for attendance at all regularly scheduled Board meetings, special Board meetings, standing committee meetings and ad hoc committee meetings, not to exceed seventy-five dollars ($75.00) in any calendar month, together with incidental expenses.The Board appoints Directors to serve as officers of the District in the capacities of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Finance Officer. Directors render services to the District by accepting such officer appointments and carrying out their responsibilities as officers. In addition, the Board periodically requests that Directors attend meetings of other agencies and organizations at which matters that pertain to or affect the District are to be discussed and/or acted upon. Directors render services to the District by attending such meetings. For those services Directors are compensated fifty dollars ($50.00) per month, together with expenses. The maximum compensation a Director may receive in one calendar month is one hundred twenty-five dollars ($125.00).

The EMID Office is located at 224 Vereda Leyenda. This building also serves as a Community Center. EMID purchased the original building from Wallover in l978 and enlarged and remodeled it to create the Community Center in 1994. Mail may be sent to EMID at this address. District Clerk/Manager is Susie Paxton Koesterer, who is the District's only employee and staff. She administers the services provided by the District. These services are generally provided by independent contracts and/or joint powers agreements with other public entities. EMID's phone number is 968-5885, which has a recorder for messages when the Clerk/Manager is not available; EMID's fax number is 685-1081.

REGULAR AND PERIODIC BOARD MEETINGS

Regular Board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month in the EMID Community Center at 7:30 p.m. The agenda for monthly Board meetings is posted 7 days prior to the meeting on the front door of the EMID Community Center Office and is distributed with a monthly newsletter. The agenda may be changed up to 72 hours prior to a regular meeting and 24 hours prior to a special meeting. Please call EMID Clerk Susie Paxton Koesterer to request a matter be put on the agenda. The following calendar of Board meetings shows the required legal action the Board must take:

  • April Meeting-1st reading of the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts on July 1st .
  • May Meeting-2nd reading of the budget for the next fiscal year.
  • June Meeting-adoption of the budget for the coming fiscal year.
  • December Meeting - appointment of new EMIDAC members for the next calendar year.
  • January Meeting - the EMID Board selects its Board officers for the year from the newly elected and incumbent Board members.

These meetings are open to the public, and residents are encouraged to attend.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISTRICT

After its creation by the State Legislature in l960, the District had a stormy beginning. It was not until after the Board election in 1971 that residents began to get some of the unique benefits of their Special District.

For several years the largest landowner in the District nominated, elected, and controlled the EMID Board, along with the appointed for life, Architectural Review Board. As a result of the efforts and financial contributions of residential property owners (in the newly formed EPOA) within the District, a challenge to the voting provisions of the original Act was sustained in Court. The District Act was amended by the Legislature in l971 to provide future EMID Boards would be elected by the registered voters in the District. The first election, after the successful lawsuit, was held on November 2, l971; Kenneth L. Moes and M.F. Murray were elected from a slate of resident property owners. Since l97l, elections have been held on a regular basis, through the County Elections Office, and vacancies on the Board have been filled by appointment by the Board, until the next scheduled election.

The formation of the District was the idea of two land developers, Irwin H. Harris and H. Roy Steele. The Special Act creating the Embarcadero Municipal Improvement District originally defined a voter as a landowner in the District. Thus, Harris and Steele, as the sole landowners and voters in the District, and its first Directors, authorized the sale of the original bonds, which were paid off in 1996.

Shortly after the District was formed, the California Attorney General put the District into a Receivership in Santa Barbara Superior Court. Misuse of public funds, under the guise of building the Entrance Fountain, was one of the grounds the Attorney General alleged in support of having a State Court Receiver. Following the conviction of Harris and Steele, in July l962, on several counts of grand theft, the District was administered by A. J. Bumb, a Trustee in Bankruptcy, and a three man board of directors, nominated by A. J. Bumb and approved by the Court. Subsequently, a large part of the property within the District was sold to Wallover, Inc. of New York, (now known as Great Universal Capital Corporation or GUCC) which remains the principal property owner within the District today. Behind residents' homes, is 800+ acres of Wallover owned land, with much of it currently planted in avocados. At Calle Real and Farren Road is a parcel of almost 20 acres (called the MEADOWS), which EMID purchased from Wallover in 1998 in order to prevent any commercial development on our side of Highway 101 and create a recreational area for residents. Wallover also owns the beachfront property, where they have built the Bacara, a luxury hotel complex.

It was not until 1981, that residents, through their EMID Board, were able to have any control over the Architectural Review Board. The consensus of the residents was to make the architectural review positions one year and appointed by the EMID board. After two trips to Sacramento by EMID Board members Dan Suchman and S David Schwartz, the District's Enabling Act was changed to allow EMID to create EMIDAC. Additional changes to the Enabling Act may be considered in the future.

Since 1985, the District has worked with the development of the beachfront portion of the District to acquire safe public beach, and pedestrian and equestrian trails on the beach, along with substantially increasing the District's Real Property Tax base to fund needed renovations to the District's infrastructure (sewers, buildings, flood control, and the like). In 1999, a dispute arose regarding the apportionment of the Bacara property tax. This dispute with the County was resolved by Joint Resolutions of the County and EMID passed in February of 1999, giving EMID 6% of the tax revenues.

In September 1987, EMID passed a Resolution to use the TECOLOTE TATTLER (formerly a quarterly publication; now an annual one) as its primary means of communication with residents; in 1997 it updated this to include the monthly TECOLOTE HI-LITES. EMID contributes to the costs of both publications.