The Blood, Sweat and Tears Behind Saving Naples

For 35 years, the stretch of coastline known as Naples has been the prize in one of Santa Barbara County's longest-running development fights — a battle waged in hearing rooms, courtrooms, and along the bluffs between Haskell's Beach and El Capitan. Now, the finish line is finally in sight.

As the Santa Barbara Independent reported, the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County kicked off its fundraising push on Friday, October 23, with a launch party at its downtown office — and walked away half a million dollars closer to permanently protecting Santa Barbara Ranch, the property locals call Naples. The nonprofit is still $15.5 million shy of its $81 million goal to buy, restore, and maintain the land.

"We can now say it loudly and with full confidence: we are saving the Gaviota Coast," Land Trust Executive Director Meredith Hendricks told the crowd. "We are running like heck to buy this thing."

A Fight That Started With a Loss

The story of saving Naples didn't begin with a victory — it began with a defeat. Bob Keats, a founding member of Surfrider Santa Barbara and the first president of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, traces his advocacy to 1991, when the Citizens for Goleta Valley lost their fight against the development of the Ritz-Carlton Bacara near Sandpiper Golf Club.

That loss, Keats told the Independent, made the entire coast more vulnerable. What followed was a decades-long campaign to fend off development along the Gaviota Coast — including Atlantic Richfield Company's proposal in the 1990s to build a golf course at what is now known as Paradiso del Mare, next door to Naples.

Keats has little doubt about what was at stake. If ARCO had succeeded with its golf course, he believes Naples would be developed by now.

"We didn't know what we were doing, but we loved that coastline," Keats said — a coastline prized for its ecological richness, its cultural significance as a historic Chumash site, and, as the lifelong surfer added, "It was important for us surfers."

Lawsuits, an 1888 Map, and 71 Mansions That Never Were

The legal saga around Naples is nearly as old as the map used to justify building on it. Around 2000, Surfrider retained the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), which became instrumental in deterring and delaying development through the courts.

The fights ran the gamut: disputes over an antiquated 1888 map laying out 400 potential lots, a court's later validation of that map, the county's approval of 71 lots for development, and developer Matt Osgood's proposal to build 71 mansions on the property. Osgood ultimately went bankrupt during the litigation and the property was foreclosed on. It was purchased in 2015 by current owner David Liu — who is now on the cusp of selling it to the Land Trust.

Linda Krop, EDC's chief counsel, has spent some 20 years entrenched in the Naples saga. She emphasized to the Independent that conservating land that has been on a development trajectory for more than a century takes decades of "really hard work" — spanning generations, from grassroots organizing to lawsuits.

Naples being saved, Krop said, "is a dream come true for us."

The Work Isn't Over

But don't pop the champagne quite yet. Krop and other advocates are quick to note that Naples is one piece — the biggest, but not the only one — of the Gaviota Coast puzzle.

EDC and Surfrider have been involved in litigation over alleged violations on the neighboring Dos Pueblos Ranch properties, including illegal disking — the agricultural practice of disturbing soil — across the coastal bluff, along with ongoing advocacy to restore the land. Dos Pueblos Ranch, which sits adjacent to Naples, is back on the market for $60 million, and conservationists would like to see it purchased and preserved too.

Then there's the small private lot dubbed "DMF" — lot 66 of Santa Barbara Ranch — on the coastal side of the property. Its owner's proposal for a seaside estate, paired with a restoration plan for part of the site, was approved by the County Zoning Administrator in 2025. Surfrider and EDC appealed to the County Planning Commission, which upheld the decision at a 2026 hearing. The groups now plan to take their appeal to the Board of Supervisors.

That hearing left Stephanie Boshers — who took over as chapter chair of Surfrider Santa Barbara in 2024, stepping into the role Keats once held — feeling "very defeated," she told the Independent. When she assumed the leadership position, she said she "felt the weight of the last 30 years" and all the anxiety that came with them.

Why It Matters for the 805

For Santa Barbarans, Naples is more than a real estate deal. It's the "gateway" to the Gaviota Coast — the last long, undeveloped stretch of Southern California coastline, a biodiversity hotspot, and a living record of Chumash history. Every hike toward El Capitan, every surf session at the point, is tied to land that could have become 71 mansions.

Krop said EDC and Surfrider remain "poised" to fight development at Naples and Dos Pueblos Ranch. "We want to work with the Land Trust on the restoration of Santa Barbara Ranch and potentially save the rest of Naples," she said.

The remaining $15.5 million is a staggering sum, but the people who've fought for this coast for three and a half decades aren't intimidated by big numbers. They've beaten an 1888 map, a golf course magnate, and a 71-mansion subdivision. As the launch party showed, they intend to finish the job — one piece of the Gaviota Coast at a time.