Appropriate, quality, well-maintained infrastructure is critical for the prosperity of Northern Santa Barbara County industries and communities. Part of building a robust regional economy is ensuring existing and prospective companies the regional assets necessary for them to thrive.

Prosperity-building infrastructure takes many forms: access to high-speed internet and robust and reliable connectivity; effective and affordable transportation options; affordable energy, well-maintained, accessible highways, bridges and roads; affordable worker housing and commercial real estate availability are all important. Inter-modal transportation is critical to a high-performance region.

The EconAlliance Infrastructure/Broadband Initiative addresses the hard assets facilitating trade and commerce in general through periodic surveys and/or discussions with industry, policymakers and community stakeholders. Sometimes through its “Community Prosperity” activities with various communities or North County as a whole, sometimes through industry or cross-industry meetings or other stakeholder interfaces, EconAlliance helps North County monitor its infrastructure assets and highlight priority infrastructure needs. It then focuses on facilitating cross-sector solutions, recommending and making introductions to funding resources, and supporting infrastructure stakeholders wherever/however possible.

Over the years, the EconAlliance’s special infrastructure focus has become broadband enhancement. In 2018, the tri-county (Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo) broadband consortium Broadband Consortium Pacific Coast (BCPC) recruited EconAlliance to serve as its designated Santa Barbara County broadband liaison, with a focus on the North County area. As a BCPC liaison, EconAlliance provides broadband-related outreach to policymakers as well as to industry and community stakeholders.

The organization provides a variety of activities: broadband update meetings, Broadband educational webinars, and an annual Broadband Forum.

A recent analysis of statewide broadband (“California Broadband Infrastructure Report Card”, March 2020, Tellus Venture Association, see Library resources) gave Santa Barbara County a D-, meaning that there is only one wireline provider offering (not necessarily even in all areas) broadband speeds of 100 Mbps down/20 Mbps up.

More recent figures may show some slight improvement, but the fact is that in 2021, there are still areas either un-served or severely under-served by broadband.

In 2020, Infrastructure/Broadband Team Lead Chris Chirgwin and EconAlliance conceptualized a “Northern Santa Barbara County Fiber Ring Network” and EconAlliance’s focus became the development of this potential middle-mile fiber asset to address broadband enhancement in North County. (See Fiber Ring overview).

Key Broadband Activities

Pacific Premier Bank has funded EconAlliance with a 2021-2022 $25,000 grant to fund an assessment of broadband needs for organizations and residents in Cuyama, Los Alamos and Orcutt, along with identifying anchor institutions in those communities.

2021-2022 funding is a follow-on effort of a previous grant awarded EconAlliance by the Bank for a similar study of Santa Maria, Guadalupe, and Lompoc, which is a study still underway.

In addition, the bank’s grant partially funds EconAlliance in engaging and overseeing telecom consultants to perform a “Last Mile Connectivity Analysis” for Northern Santa Barbara County.

EconAlliance is partnering with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians on this element of the grant work, and Tribal funding will be supporting funding for the Analysis. “Last Mile” element provides critical analysis supporting community decision-making, helping communities to better understand technology options, cost and viability of last mile connectivity.

The overall grant project scope specifications is detailed in the RFP found in the EconAlliance Document Library.

In addition, applicants will find the EDA Grant Scope of Work document (PDF) here and a brief outline in a two-page flyer here.

Advocacy and other efforts supporting accelerated development of the Northern Santa Barbara County Fiber Ring Network, a middle-mile infrastructure element envisioned as enhancing broadband access for North County communities, industries, anchor institutions and key assets. EconAlliance is supporting partnerships, exploring funding potential, writing and co-writing grants, and socializing the Fiber Ring concept. Part of this effort involves developing and maintaining a preliminary broadband strategy for North County.

Supporting Vandenberg IT team’s broadband enhancement: In March, 2021, Vandenberg Air Force Base changed its name to Vandenberg Space Force Base, setting the stage for the Base’s new vision as a “Spaceport of the Future”. To foster spaceport readiness, a major upgrade in connectivity was required and in 2020, EconAlliance and BCPC assisted the Base IT team with market research around broadband improvements – hosting a broadband provider/Base IT team “meet and greet,” and identifying potential providers to meet Vandenberg’s unique needs.

In 2020, EconAlliance, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash and BCPC co-wrote a successful tribal grant to the US Department of the Interior to develop a Tribal broadband strategy for linking traditional Chumash lands to new Trust lands. Partners are now implementing.

In 2021, EconAlliance is beginning a broadband needs assessment for North County. Pacific Premier Bank is supporting this important effort with partial funding of the assessment.