The State - News from March 13, 1985

Actor Fess Parker’s plan for a new beachfront convention center and hotel seemed headed for overwhelming approval by Santa Barbara voters. With all absentee ballots counted and nine of 40 precincts reporting, an unofficial tally showed 4,540 votes in favor of the project and 1,305 opposed, Parker’s proposal--substantially downgraded and revised to placate environmentalists who feared a chain-reaction of development, calls for a 360-room hotel and 1,000-person-capacity convention hall on 23 beachfront acres he owns. Parker, the erstwhile Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone of films and television--also agreed to dedicate five acres of adjacent property as public parkland. The City Council decided to call a special election on the issue when it appeared that no workable compromise could be reached.