Buyer of Half-Built Estate to Tear It Down and Start Over

••• The Hope Ranch “volcano” woke up on the wrong side of the bed the other day. Photo by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

••• The word on the street is that the recent buyer of the half-built 9,395-square-foot estate (plus outbuildings) at 605/607 Cowles is scrapping everything and starting over. He/she paid $20 million in May.

••• Caltrans says that the northbound 101 onramp at Casitas Pass Road was slated to open ahead of schedule yesterday, July 12. No word yet on whether it happened.

••• Good news from the Santa Barbara Zoo: “Ajax, its female Amur leopard, is pregnant and due later this summer. This will be the first Amur leopard birth at the Santa Barbara Zoo in more than 20 years. Amur leopards are the most endangered of all the big cats, with less than 100 remaining in the wild.”

••• The Robert Cray Band plays the Lobero on December 14.

••• I was amused by this sign at Evan’s Relaxing Station, where all prices have gone up by $2.

••• A bear was spotted on the Lower Riviera.

••• I couldn’t make sense of the location of the 1860 Arrellanes-Kirk Adobe at 421 E. Figueroa Street when it came on the market for $3.41 million a couple of weeks ago, so I was delighted to visit it during a recent open house. The first photo shows the entry from the street, but at the end of the driveway, past the two townhome-style houses, is the gate for 421. The house has character to burn.

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