Residents packed a Goleta City Council special meeting on Wednesday to condemn the recent relocation of a gun store opposite a local day care center.
Goodland Guns secured a longterm lease at 7443 Hollister Avenue—formerly occupied by 7/11—in July, owner Dan Ashton previously told the News-Press. The store is near Ellwood Elementary and neighbors Here We Grow Learning Center, a day care center and preschool that opened in January.
Dozens of people spoke during public comment on Wednesday, both in person and over Zoom, to fight back against the city’s existing business licensing processes and zoning laws. Goleta city codes classified Goodland Guns as a sporting goods store, which the zoning in the area permitted.
Scott Cooper, who has lived in the Ellwood community for 40 years, said residents have lost trust in the city. He called Goleta’s business licensing routines a “checklist process.”
“Because of these inconsistencies, the city needs to proceed with a new firearms ordinance, revisit the business license and find a more appropriate location for Goodland Guns,” he said.
Neighbors created an online petition on Aug. 3 calling on Goodland Guns to leave, garnering more than 2,000 signatures as of Friday.
In response, Ashton said in an emailed statement that Goodland Guns’ inventory is heavily restricted and does not pose a community hazard.
“We respectfully ask the City Council and the public to look at the facts rather than yielding to a vocal minority,” he said.
Ahead of the meeting, the city published a Q&A page on its website to provide information about its business license processes. But Darcy Bradley, an Ellwood resident, said she was unsatisfied with the answers provided.
“This ignores the purpose of community commercial zoning, which is meant to serve the immediately adjacent residential neighborhood while maintaining compatibility with nearby homes and businesses,” she said.
Bradley said she wants the city to adopt an ordinance to create a buffer zone—a neutral barrier between institutions with different land uses—around schools.
Resident Steve Hale, who frequently goes on walks by the Here We Grow Learning Center, said he wants the City Council to be more transparent about their plans for the site.
“It’s amazing to me that this is gonna be allowed to happen,” he said. “It’s mindblowing.”
Mayor Paula Perotte responded, saying she shares public commenters’ concerns. She recalled past shootings in Goleta, including mass shootings that occurred at a Goleta post office in 2006 and in Isla Vista in May 2014.
The City Council will hold future meetings to review staff suggestions on how it could change the land use ordinance, Perotte said.
“I realize that we could have done this better,” she said. “We should have, and I’m sorry.”
Councilmember Stuart Kasdin, whose district encompasses the property, seconded Perotte’s suggestion.
“There should have been some recognition, some awareness, that guns are not the same thing as backpacks,” he said.
There was no public notice about the gun store’s relocation, said Sheila Wiseman, another Ellwood resident.
“I could not bring a gun in here—not one gun, even if I asked if it was OK,” she said. “You’re bringing hundreds of guns into our neighborhood. And you didn’t even ask if it was OK.”
Amid a lack of affordable schooling options for Goleta community members, the city should focus on uplifting its educational institutions, resident Jill Means said.
“We should be supporting new childcare providers,” she said, “not creating avoidable land use conflicts that could undermine their viability.”
