••• The former Shopkeepers space in the Funk Zone (137 Anacapa Street) will become an outpost of The Men’s Den, from Kariella‘s Amara Bessa.
••• Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Scenery Florals, currently at The Post, is the floral designer taking over the green building on Yanonali Street. Look for it to open in September.
••• Two pieces of news from the Montecito Country Mart: La Ligne has opened (let’s park with intention, OK?), and Marfa Stance, which makes “reversible modular women’s outerwear,” will take over the I ♥︎ Montecito space starting August 31.
••• Casa Dorinda is interested in expanding, according to the August 6 agenda of the Montecito Board of Architectural Review: “conceptual review of the construction of a 9,521-square-foot two-story addition to the existing two-story personal care facility to add eight personal care units and eight memory care units. Two existing units would be demolished, resulting in a net increase of 14 units and a total of 280 dwelling units on campus. 1,065 square feet of the PCU/MCU would be demolished and rebuilt (labeled as remodeled on the plans) to accommodate the new addition.”
••• And the Zia Group real estate brokerage has plans for its .3-acre lot at 2940 De La Vina (between Calle Laureles and Alamar Avenue). From the Architectural Board of Review’s August 3 agenda: “demolition of the existing canopy and storage sheds, conversion of the existing office building into seven short-term rental units, construction of a one-story 999 square foot real estate office building and a one-story garage. Proposal includes an open-air spa enclosure, landscaping and hardscaping, and eleven on-site parking spaces.”
••• The city is holding meetings on August 12 and 13 about reducing De La Vina Street between Padre and Valerio to a single lane to make room for a buffered bike lane.
The Pilot Project involves a lane reduction to eliminate the double-threat condition that exists for pedestrians when one driver stops for a pedestrian, and the driver in the next lane does not. The vehicle lane that would be removed would be replaced with a buffered bike lane like the roadway configuration on De La Vina Street from Constance to Padre Streets and from Carrillo to Haley Streets. […] Pedestrian safety enhancements are currently being installed at Padre, Pedregosa, Islay, and Valerio Streets which includes curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalks, and new pavement markings.
••• I missed this from last week’s Historic Landmarks Commission meeting: “Proposal to demolish an existing two-story, three-unit apartment building [215 E. Victoria Street] totaling approximately 2,696 gross square feet, clear and grade the 12,977-square-foot site and construct a new five-story residential condominium development over a parking podium. The project includes 19 two-bedroom for-sale condominium units totaling approximately 24,761 square feet of residential floor area, 17 private garages, 5 additional parking spaces, and a bicycle storage room with 20 bicycle racks.” The design looks pretty good—lots of interesting details. Rendering courtesy DMHA.
••• In the first high-end luxury real estate question we’ve seen in a while, 2937 Padaro Lane is going under the hammer. It first came on the market in 2021 for a delulu $100 million, spent some time at an even delulu-er $109 million, and then got cut six times to $48.975 million. While there is private beach access, as I wrote back in 2021, “the majority of the 4.2 acres is far from the water […] and the 2,514-square-foot, three-bedroom house is nothing special. In fact, it doesn’t even appear to have an ocean view. Maybe $30 million…?”
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5 Stories on Victoria? Isn’t there a height restriction?
Santa Barbara is completely trying to make driving miserable as it is with that one lane you can’t get across it when there’s traffic on Dela vina Street and nobody rides their bicycle on Dela vina Street everyone is on State Street. That’s why they closed it.
No one rides their bike on de la vina because it’s dangerous in its current form.
I got stuck behind an electric scooter on DLV yesterday and it was obnoxious. Would have been better if it were one lane and he were traveling in it. I really like the one lane with bike lane conversions.
I disagree. It’s so much nicer and more chill driving down Chapala and De La Vina where they made it one lane for cars + a bike lane. They were too narrow and sketchy for 2 cars to drive side. And that’s how it is now on DLV where they’re proposing this change
As someone who drives this stretch of DLV daily, there are more cars than bikes on the road and taking away another lane is only going to create even more traffic and congestion. No matter how much of a “road diet” SB tries to force on people, the truth is that this is still a town full of tourists, commuters and workers – all in cars. Those populations will never be bicyclists and continually taking away roads only fuels more traffic and endangers everyone.
It is possible to commute on bicycle.