News from Goleta, a quaint coastal city in Southern California, rarely leaves the borders of Santa Barbara County; but due to the city government's recent decision to allow a local gun store to open adjacent to a daycare, the community's frustration is now being heard throughout the state.
No notice appeared on the city's website. Nor was there a public discussion over whether a local gun shop, Goodland Guns, could relocate next to a preschool, Here We Grow Early Learning Center, which serves infants and preschoolers.
Residents instead learned about the shop's planned move from Old Town through word of mouth after some folks noticed signage near the preschool.
Residents protested the gun shop's grand re-opening on Sept. 5 and confronted local leaders
during a Goleta City Council special meeting on Aug. 12.
"It puzzles us that senior managers did not recognize the controversial nature of plopping a gun store into the middle of a family-oriented neighborhood, next to a preschool and along a path used by school children," Scott Cooper, a longtime Goleta resident, said during the special meeting.
"The Goodland Gun relocation has shaken our faith in the city's management."
Ultimately, the city council heard residents' dismay over the situation and promised to reevaluate the city's ordinances that allowed it to occur. As a result, the city will be holding a "Firearm and Ammunition Retail Sales Study Session" at its Sept. 1 city council meeting.
Although this would not affect the opening of Goodland Guns, the city hopes to develop a new plan to prevent this from happening again.
What led up to Goodland Guns' relocation?
Many in the community first learned about the issue in early August after Steve Hale, a 30-year Goleta resident, noticed a new spiked-tip gated fence being erected near the learning center and an "army truck" in the parking lot of 7443 Hollister Avenue.
For years, the building had stood as the hollow husk of a former 7-Eleven, boarded up with plywood and enclosed by a chain-link fence.
"It seems like the city has let the little Ellwood community (down)," Hale said during a special meeting the Goleta City Council held on Aug. 12.
"All of these little kids are going to be walking down that street, going to first-, second-, third-, fourth-grade school."
However, for Dan Ashton, the owner of Goodland Guns, that decrepit building was "one of the only available properties" he could legally move into that met the state's "strict" firearm and building codes. It was also the end of an "exhausting three-year process" to find a location in Goleta's "incredibly scarce" commercial space inventory.
Prior to his relocation, Ashton had operated his business in Old Town Goleta, the city's historic commercial and residential area, for nearly 13 years. Although he had been planning to move his shop to a different location in the city for a while, the search didn't become urgent until earlier this year after he received a "30-day notice to vacate" from his landlord, who was "drastically" raising the rent.
"My primary focus during the search was simply finding a legally compliant space to save my livelihood," Ashton told USA TODAY in an email statement.
"The inventory for commercial space in Goleta is already incredibly scarce due to rapid growth and businesses migrating out of Santa Barbara. When you combine those high rents with the fact that some property owners are hesitant to lease to a highly regulated firearms retailer, the options shrink to almost zero."
Although Ashton did not expect the level of backlash his relocation would receive from the community, he understands "the natural protective instincts of parents" who have learned about his shop.
Ashton wants to reassure families that the business will not endanger their children and highlights that, by operating a federally licensed firearms dealership, it is "one of the most highly regulated, heavily monitored, and physically secure commercial spaces" in the neighborhood.
"When it came to our neighbors, including the daycare, our priority was to immediately establish a secure, quiet, and professional environment, which is why we proactively installed a privacy screen along the shared fence line before we even opened," Ashton told USA TODAY.
"Our inventory is locked down in, our facility has top-tier security, and we run a quiet, strictly professional operation."
However, for many in the community, these reassurances weren't enough to make them feel comfortable with Goodland Gun's opening in September.
On Aug. 19, the Goleta Union School District voted in a 5-0 favor to approve a resolution urging the City of Goleta, City of Santa Barbara and County of Santa Barbara to amend their zoning and land-use regulation ordinances to establish a minimum distance "from public and private schools, preschools, child care facilities, and other youth-serving spaces" in which firearm retail locations can operate.
Notably, the school board pointed to California’s Gun-Free School Zone Act, which prohibits folks from possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of a public or private K–12 school, as a model of regulation that they would like to be seen implemented for all locations "where children and youth learn, receive care, gather, or regularly travel."
Why did the City of Goleta allow a gun shop to open next to a learning center?
As the debate over Goodland Gun's relocation intensified throughout August, one question many in the community repeatedly asked was why the City of Goleta would approve this move without considering the sensitive nature of opening a firearms business next to a learning center.
In a statement to USA TODAY, the City of Goleta acknowledged that it approved the business license for Goodland Gun since "the applicant met the necessary licensing criteria."
When asked why the city would allow a gun store to open near a learning center, the city highlighted that Goleta "does not currently have any zoning restrictions specific to firearms retail near sensitive uses."
"The City of Goleta is not alone in this predicament, as many jurisdictions do not have location-based restrictions on where gun stores can operate. The Goleta Council has directed city staff to start a public hearing process to evaluate our current zoning rules and permit requirements, so that we avoid similar circumstances in the future," the statement reads.Additionally, Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte acknowledged and responded to the community's frustration and criticism of the situation during a special meeting the Goleta City Council held on Aug. 12.
"I realize that we could have done this better. We should have. And I am sorry," Perotte said during the meeting.
Perotte said that this situation is likely very sensitive to the community, as within the last 20 years, Goleta has experienced two major shootings: the 2006 mass shooting that took place at a United States Postal Service facility in Goleta, which left seven people dead and the 2014 deadly shooting in Isla Vista, the college town of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Perotte made a promise to the community that council members would discuss during the special meeting, potentially changing the city ordinance.
Within a few weeks, the city has attempted to live up to that promise by planning to host a presentation to discuss "possible regulation of firearm and ammunition retail sales" with staff at its Sept. 1 city council meeting.
According to the city's agenda items, city staff plans to present options to the city council to address where and how a firearm retail location can open in Goleta.
One option would involve developing new regulations and standards specifically aimed at firearms and ammunition retail sales, which would include "possible sensitive use buffers."
"A Title 17 Zoning amendment would reflect the most common approach utilized by other California jurisdictions in placing location restrictions on the retail sale of firearms," the report reads.
The second option would see city officials consider approving an additional provision to the city's business licenses and regulations municipal code, which would add new requirements for people who apply for a license to legally sell firearms and ammunition.
The city could also consider approving a combination of the two options if it saw fit.
Noe Padilla is a Northern California Reporter for USA Today. Contact him at npadilla@usatodayco.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow us on Facebook at TODAY Californian
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California city faces backlash after gun store opens near preschool
