Altercation erupts over bathing pools on trail to Central Coast hot springs

Controversy has erupted over the bathing pools at the top of the Hot Springs Trail in Montecito.

Amid Santa Barbara County’s push to add more parking spaces along East Mountain Drive, a video shot on a misty morning over Memorial Day weekend shows an altercation among people arguing over the popular Hot Springs bathing pools.

“The hot springs are blocking a stream bed in California, which is against federal and state law,” says a woman, dressed in black and wearing a cap, who opposes the bathing pools.

A man, who supports the pools, responds: “The hot springs are natural.”

She counters, “The hot springs are natural, but the pools are not.”

The woman on the video then tells the man that creating the pools “is a felony.”

He responds, “What you did is illegal, and that’s also a felony.”

The two then argue, speaking over each other, with voices escalated, asking each other to see their permits for messing with the pools.

The man then turns the camera on the woman to reveal her voice, and she blurts an expletive and reaches for his phone, prompting him to respond, “What are you going to do about it?”

She tells him to “get the (expletive) out of here.”

She then turned around and walked away.

Welcome to Montecito, home to Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and lots of drama.

The video went viral in local circles, creating the latest flashpoint in the controversy over the Hot Springs Trail.

Montecito residents have expressed concerns, anger and outrage over the number of people, many of them tourists, who visit the hot springs every day of the year.

They come from across California, the United States, and all over the world to hike the trail and then bathe in the warm pools.

Pools’ Popularity and Parking Problems

The pools have always been popular, but the attraction increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were looking to get outside and enjoy nature.

People took selfies and photos, and then tagged the alluring images on Instagram and TikTok, creating a buzz, making the bathing pools a must-see California destination.

Sounds like an ideal California experience, but there was a problem.

The Hot Springs Trail only has eight parking spaces. So visitors, hundreds a day sometimes, started parking on East Mountain Drive, Riven Rock Road, and other narrow streets where parking is not allowed.

The vehicles, in some cases, blocked resident driveways and other homeowners’ lines of sight when backing out of their driveways.

Homeowners interviewed by Noozhawk described a nightmarish situation, where people dump trash in their backyards, vandalize mailboxes, and start fires in the hills.

“We have become the basecamp to Coachella,” said Dr. Kohanya Groff, a nearby homeowner. “The pools are the stage. It is just madness.”

Groff said the county is bullying homeowners and valuing the wrong people.

“The people who are being punished here are the law-abiding, taxpaying peaceful constituents,” Groff said.

She said that the regulatory agencies are “complicit,” in illegal actions.

“The people who come here they don’t care about the environment,” Groff said. “We are just trying to save it from human impact that is abusing the land.”

Some homeowners placed boulders and planted vegetation in the public right of way to prevent people from parking near their homes. The county then issued notices to homeowners to remove any obstructions on public land.

The homeowners sued. After a long, back-and-forth court battle, an appeals court sided with the county.

Chris Sneddon, public works director for Santa Barbara County, had no comment on the situation with the people fighting over the pools, but he had seen the video. He referred Noozhawk to the U.S. Forest Service, whom he said had jurisdiction.

As for the parking, he said the county is trying to work with homeowners, house-by-house, to find additional parking spaces.

“Basically, where we are at right now in the process is we have given notices for people to remove the unpermitted encroachments,” Sneddon said. “Some homeowners have already cleared their encroachments.”

Sneddon said the county is focused on clearing shoulders on East Mountain Drive, and that although there is room potentially for up to 60 street parking spaces, the county would never create that many.

Sneddon had a meeting recently with the homeowners and Darcel Elliott, chief of staff to First District county Supervisor Das Williams, about the parking situation.

“We are coming up with balanced approaches,” Sneddon said. “That process seems to be going really well.”

Groff said threatening litigation and fines is not an example of working together.

She also said it is ridiculous to create parking space here-and-there in front of people’s homes because motorists will automatically then just park behind a car in front of them and would create a snake-like row of cars parked on the narrow streets.

Pools are not permitted, but regulators not approving new ones

Andrew Madsen, the public information officer for Los Padres National Forest, told Noozhawk that the pools are not permitted, but there is no desire on the part of the U.S. Forest Service to alter them.

“The Montecito hot springs have been used by the public as well as the native inhabitants in this area since long before Los Padres National Forest came into being,” Madsen said.

“Our position continues to be that we are not removing the bathing pools, as that would amount to eliminating an established and appropriate recreational use.

“That said, we are also not approving building more pools there.”

Madsen said the Forest Service is working with the county, the community of Montecito, the Montecito Fire Protection District, the Montecito Trails Foundation, local residents, and other interested partners to “appropriately manage the recreational use at the hot springs.”

Williams in the past sided against the homeowners, supported litigation, and called for the residents to remove items in the public right-of-way to create more parking spaces. Williams, who lost his seat to Roy Lee in the March 5 election, now says the pools should be removed.His office sent a letter to Forest Service officials saying, “These alterations are resulting in potential safety concerns for our county residents. These risks range from human ignition and evacuation fire risk to residents and first responders caught in sundowner winds, to illness from water quality problems from sun lotions, insect repellants, and human waste in the creek’s watershed.”

Williams will remain in office until January.

Building the pools

Noozhawk on Monday spoke with a man who has built the pools since before the pandemic. He rebuilds them after storms or people damage them. He noted that there was a huge surge of visitors over Memorial Day Weekend.

“I think the residents got really pissed off and retaliated, and went up to demolish the pools,” he said.

The man asked Noozhawk not to share his name because of potential retaliation by people who disapprove of building the pools.

“It is kind of silly to want to destroy something that is built,” he said. “It’s no harm. I am not using any synthetic materials. It’s all natural.”

He said that storms earlier this year destroyed the pools, and he makes it his mission to repair them. He hides shovels up in the area that he uses to dig out the pools.

“The hot springs are great for inflammation,” he said. “I hop in the pool sometimes when I am done.”

This story was originally published June 5, 2024 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Altercation erupts over bathing pools on trail to Central Coast hot springs."