Santa Barbara County
Cities and Towns
Source: Wikipedia
Gaviota
Gaviota is an unincorporated town in
Santa Barbara County, California located about 30 miles west of
Santa Barbara and 15 miles south of Buellton. Approximately 35
people live in and near Gaviota. The ZIP Code is 93117, and the
community is inside area code 805.
The town is south and east of Gaviota State Park, and is at the
point on U.S. Route 101 where this primarily north-south highway
takes a turn due east towards Santa Barbara, Ventura, and the San
Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. The road to Hollister Ranch,
the large private land holding along the coast between Gaviota
and Point Conception, connects with U.S. 101 just west of
Gaviota, at the turnoff to Gaviota State Park.
Gaviota is also the location of the Gaviota Marine Terminal, the
large storage tanks of which are visible on the ocean side of the
freeway, and which is currently being decommissioned and
abandoned, with intent to become public open space. On the
mountain side of the freeway is the Gaviota Oil Heating Facility,
also known as the "Gaviota Gas Plant", built by Chevron
Corp. and currently owned by Plains Exploration & Production
Company (PXP); this facility is being reconfigured and partially
abandoned. The former purpose of the facility was to heat and
process the heavy crude oil produced offshore so that it could
flow through the All American Pipeline to refineries in the
Bakersfield area.
This page was last updated July 19, 2009.