Oil firm, foes strike major deal

PXP has forged a separate agreement with the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit land conservancy, that would help convert the donated acreage into parkland. The trust has spent the last dozen years trying to preserve sections of the Gaviota coast, a 40-mile stretch of pristine beaches, dramatic bluffs and terraced grasslands that marks the end of hundreds of miles of virtually uninterrupted sprawl extending from San Diego.

Under the agreement, PXP in the next two years would give the trust two large parcels, or about 148 acres, near Gaviota State Park.

It also would transfer to the trust about 1,000 acres north of Lompoc in La Purisima Hills and withdraw a proposal to develop a 1,100-home subdivision there.

After wrapping up oil production off Point Arguello in 2017, PXP would begin to restore an additional 56 acres on the Gaviota coast now used as a gas processing plant, and eventually turn that over to the trust.

It would also hand over 2,727 acres surrounding its oil production facilities near Lompoc after closing them in 2022.

All told, the donated land would total 3,931 acres.

The industrial facilities, which can be seen on the drive up scenic U.S. 101 just before the highway veers inland, have long been an eyesore in an otherwise unobstructed coastal view, said Steve Dunn, president of the Citizens Planning Assn. of Santa Barbara.

"The Gaviota facility was built in the early 20th century," he said. "Now we have an end date and plan to return it to a natural state. The Lompoc facility has been a thorn in our side and we look forward to that facility's end date. These are really big deals for us."

Debra Geiler, the trust's Southern California director, said the total value of the donated land could range from $50 million to more than $100 million.

More important, she said, the parcels are strategically located in a patchwork of private properties between public beaches and parks.

"This is one of the West's most threatened landscapes," Geiler said. "It's a particularly important landscape because of the nature of the geography," a place where the coastline shifts direction to east-west and warm and cold ocean currents collide, helping create a climate that supports an unusual diversity of wildlife.

Rep. Lois Capps, a Democrat who represents Santa Barbara in Congress, praised the "unique partnership" that has taken steps toward "ending a significant amount of oil and gas drilling along the Central Coast."

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a member of the State Land Commission, called it "a very complex and far-reaching agreement that would end oil drilling off the north Santa Barbara coast."

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ken.weiss@latimes.com