••• “The Santa Barbara City Council will receive an update on the proposed redevelopment of Paseo Nuevo, which has been downsized 500 units to 233 units—with 80 affordable units—in the latest revision of the plans. The latest plans, which were released to the public on Thursday, were created after the development team from AB Commercial found that the original 500-unit proposal would have required a full demolition of the mall. The new plans would keep many of the existing structures, shops, the museum, the Nordstrom building, and movie theater. The current Macy’s building would be demolished, and the market-rate units would be built near the Ortega Street side of the property.” —Independent
••• “The development team pivoted from demolishing the mall because it would have been too expensive to build a new foundation for the housing across the span of the mall. Instead, they have snaked it around the corner and opted to build on land that the city had given to them in an effort to sweeten the deal. [… An] upscale grocery store would be something like Eataly or Erewhon at the size of about 17,000 square feet. Inside the mall, to replace some of the current tenants, the city and the developer have proposed a fitness center of about 25,000 square feet. These would be the two new anchor tenants.” (Would an upscale store like Eataly or Erewhon want to be there? That part of State Street doesn’t feel like the kind of affluent area those brands tend to prefer.) —Noozhawk (with more in a subsequent post)
••• “The City of Santa Barbara’s Short-Term Rental task force collected more than $2.6 million in outstanding taxes, penalties, and fees in its first two years as a pilot program. […] The task force—which includes three special investigators and two financial analysts—already proved to bring in much more money than it costs the city. In 2024, the pilot program spent less than $140,000 of its allocated budget of $1.175 million. In its second year, the program has been run with similar success, spending just $233,000 of its remaining budget and collecting nearly $1.8 million from a total of 230 unpermitted rentals.” —Independent
••• “Glass House Brands, the cannabis company whose California farms were raided by federal agents last month, has issued a press release refuting claims made by the Department of Homeland Security.” —Edhat
••• An update on the Gifford Fire between Santa Maria and New Cuyama: “The wildfire was reported at 91,250 acres and 9% containment, as of Wednesday night. On Wednesday, the firefighting force grew to 2,988 people and a second fire base camp is opening in Santa Margarita to tackle the northern end of the blaze.” Highway 166 remains closed. —Noozhawk
••• “The city of Carpinteria has launched a housing projects website so the community can stay informed on ongoing proposed projects. The page lists housing projects that have 25 or more units, as well as documents related to the city’s 2023-2031 Housing Element.” Santa Barbara city and county should absolutely be doing the same, and all of them should be including renderings and site plans. —Coastal View News
••• Forgot to include this back when it happened a few weeks ago: “The University of California Board of Regents announced UC Santa Barbara’s sixth chancellor as Dr. Dennis Assanis. […] Assanis is a Greek-native who previously served as President of the University of Delaware.” —KEYT
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Sure makes total sense. Let’s put low income, subsidized housing next to an Erewhon.
Meanwhile down the hall at city headquarters, three people are paid to look at AirBnB all day, every day and yet still miss 80% of the listings. Somehow…
Honest question. Is there anything that the City of Santa Barbara does well and on budget? Other than spend money we dont have on things we dont need while paying themselves more than any other comparable role receives anywhere, in the entire world.
At least the city has $500k sitting around to give to orgs that promote tax fraud and illegal immigration. You’d think the hotels, restaurants and general contractors would be the ones paying to help their so-called “employees”. Nah. Instead, the cost is forced upon the hard working, law abiding people who pay the taxes that pay for things like roads, firefighters and city worker salaries while the profiteers are allowed to carry on with no penalty. Nothing to see here folks, just another day in pearl clutching, virtue signaling, do-nothing Santa Barbara. At least we have the world’s best weather. Luckily, there is nothing the city can do to ‘f’ that up. At least for now…
The illegal vacation rental task force is bringing in 10x what it is costing us while barely tapping into its allocated budget. So it is in fact one of the success stories of our local government.
From Noozhawk
–Santa Barbara has collected $823,795 in outstanding taxes, interest, penalties and fees from short-term vacation rental owners since it began the enforcement program in 2019. That includes $487,393 from properties in the coastal zone and $336,402 from properties in the inland area.–
Collecting taxes and fees owed to the city from scofflaws is not a bonus for the city’s coffers. Taxes are the only real source of revenue! Your post is akin to praising your gardener for raking the dead leaves. That’s his f’n job!
A quick search on AirBnB for a week in Oct in SB lists 602 units available and yet the city only collected from some 230 over the last 5 years? Sorry BW but your math doesnt math…
I think it’s clear this seems to be one of the few effective departments the city has. For 3 employees, I’d say they’re doing alright. Of all the departments, agencies, consultants, etc. we waste money on, this doesn’t seem to be one deserving of such harsh criticism.
So well said and on point 100%.
Let’s add in the trashed beach from fiestas and the and imaginable amount of dyed confetti and sillystring and plastics littering everywhere along Cabrillo Boulevard, especially the planter. Like every year, they will do nothing to clean it up. It’ll eventually just bllow into the ocean in 8 to 10 months just to repeat next year.
A green city that cares about its people.
Don’t forget the millions of dollars spent on outside consultants to “reimagine State Street” and thousands of staff hours spent on all the community charrettes to accomplish…. what?
Would you please be specific about the organizations promoting tax fraud and illegal immigration that you refer to? and of the 602 Vacation rentals how many are operating legally? Not all of them. By the way, I don’t like Airbnb’s, I have one two doors down. But if they are legal nothing can be done.
The language from the Independent is muddled. The 80 affordable units are being built at a separate site (parking garage at Chapala and Canon Perdido) and are not included in the 233 units proposed to sit on the Macy’s building location as the Independent headline would make it seem.
The rendering looks great. I agree with Erik it seems dubious an Erewhon on Eataly would want to be situated at that location. I’m not sure I even understand where people would park to frequent a market like that. It sounds like the existing foundations will remain unchanged, therefore the number of parking spots at Paseo Nuevo would be unchanged and many would likely need to be used for residents.
All of that said, I would love to see more development like this for State Street. Getting more people to live downtown feels like the only way to make State Street viable again. What is the latest on the Nordstrom building? More apartments, right?
I agree. More housing means more customers for businesses, which means a more vibrant area for residents and tourists alike to enjoy. And re: parking needs, walking or biking to the market are good alternatives ;)
Pretty crazy that the low income building will block all the southern views from the Canary hotel. That’s messed up.
Love to see the redevelopment of Paseo Nuevo geared toward housing. Whether it’s luxury, workforce, or affordable, we just need more high density units built downtown. Next, let’s do the surface parking lots in the area!
And having a market and gym as anchors is smart as they’ll invite repeat visits throughout the week for residents. I live downtown and personally would shop at either option mention, but welcome any grocery option that could be successful in that spot (Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Lazy Acres, Sprouts, etc…)
I was also very relieved to read Councilmember Sneddon’s comments in the Independent that, “images of cars on State Street in the renderings were ‘not indicative of any plans’ to reopen the street.” For me, that would be a dealbreaker.
Why would one want to demolish the parking garage at Chapala and Canon Perdido? That and the likely loss of at least some of the public parking at Paseo Nuevo will make it harder for visitors to downtown to park, reducing activity on State St. instead of expanding it. That lot is also important for providing parking for the Tuesday and Saturday farmers markets. Would it not make more sense to locate the subsidized housing elsewhere?