The future of California’s historic parks may lie in the example set by a South Coast group’s efforts to preserve the past.

The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, or SBTHP, is touting a model for future state park funding by using its commercial real estate to generate operating revenue. By renting out parts of the 230-year-old El Presidio de Santa Barbara, trust officials said, it won’t be at the mercy of state deficit-prompted cutbacks.
Earlier this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened to shutter all state parks as a way to shrink California’s budget deficit. But because of revenue-generating efforts started years ago, El Presidio park wasn’t threatened.

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