••• Tom Modugno of Goleta History wrote an Edhat op-ed that’s very much worth a read: “Is Goleta Prepared for a Possible Fire at Densely Populated Lithium-Ion Battery Storage Facility?” Here’s one part:
The Moss Landing plant [in Northern California that caught fire last month] was much bigger than ours, and the evacuation area was an eight-mile radius, so how big would the evacuation area be for our little 60 megawatt plant [at Storke and Highway 101]? Since we have no idea if there is any emergency protocol in place, let’s assume it is only a one-mile radius evacuation. Now think about how many homes that would include. Besides the two new neighborhoods that are on either side of it, a one mile evacuation radius would encompass part of the airport, part of Isla Vista, out to Costco, and to the north it would include Dos Pueblos High School and the surrounding neighborhoods, up to the Glen Annie Golf Course. If our county supervisors successfully build over 1,000 new homes at Glen Annie, we can add that to the evacuation area. Now imagine that evacuation process with a toxic cloud overhead. And really, would you feel safe if you were just a mile away from a toxic cloud?
••• The closure of State Street to cars is coming up on five years, and “the city of Santa Barbara once again talked about changes to State Street at last week’s City Council meeting,” reports Noozhawk. “The plan is to remove unused newspaper racks and move the outdoor dining that is currently on the street to the sidewalk and widen the sidewalk with ‘pedlets’ on the 500 block of State Street. The city also wants to remove non-tree landscaping on the 1200 block. In addition, officials are talking about bringing pedicabs and a golf cart shuttle program to State Street from city parking lots. City staff has proposed a ‘pop-up forest’ on the 700 and 800 blocks with new seating, shrubbery and trees.” Here’s an idea: make that stretch one-way for cars, create a dedicated two-way bike lane, and let restaurants have sidewalk space for tables. Forget the rest—golf carts, pedicabs, pop-up forests, etc.—and stop tinkering with it block by block.
••• The Billabong and Volcom clothing stores in the Fithian Building (625-635 State Street, at Ortega) are closing, with sales underway. Parent company Liberated Brands filed for bankruptcy. —John Palminteri
••• “The Santa Barbara City Council has passed a set of sweeping new design standards intended to bring developers more certainty in the process, while also protecting the city’s quality of life and character. […] The plan includes development standards for five zones throughout the city. Those areas include four architectural styles. The standards come as a result of the state’s Housing Accountability Act, which prevents denying or reducing density for housing projects that comply with objective criteria.” —Noozhawk
••• As reported here in December, the proposed redevelopment of the Sears part of La Cumbre Plaza includes two four-story buildings with 443 apartments total; the news in Noozhawk‘s article is that the architecture will be Spanish Colonial in style.
••• “Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Commission gave a unanimous go-ahead […] to a Public Works department request to remove 13 trees from N. Milpas Street sidewalks. But it came only after the commission chair secured wording that conditioned the removals on a commitment to plant at least 30 new trees in vacant wells and curb extensions that will be created in a long-awaited safety upgrade of intersections between Quinientos and Canon Perdido streets.” —Independent
••• “Shedding Some Light on the Grand Mansion That Later Became the Site of Santa Barbara City College.” —Independent
••• “The Planes of Fame Museum in Chino is expanding to the Central Coast. The Santa Maria Public Airport District is implementing [?] a new Planes of Fame Air Museum to preserve aviation history, inspire interest, and honor aviation veterans.” —KSBY
••• Pacific Coast Highway briefly reopened one lane in each direction between Santa Monica and Ventura County, but then it was closed again because of the rainstorms. It may reopen again as soon as tomorrow. —KCLU
················
Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter and you’ll never miss a post.
I am excited that they’re trialing and testing different things so we know what works when they finally build the master plan!
Also, there is already a 2-way bike path down the middle. Not sure what bringing back a car lane would fix, you can just take chapala and can’t park on state anyway.
Could not agree more about State St. Fish, or cut bait. I favored the idea of a pedestrian promenade years before it was done. There were several town halls devoted to concepts like this well before COVID. Seeing it in practice, I no longer feel that way. We are wasting money and time trialling corny projects that are all done in half-assed, cheap feeling ways. How could one even measure the “success” of a project like the one stated? Such a joke. Among the solutions for downtown include adding more market rate housing, and returning public places to the actual public, not the select few homeless who have unfortunately spoiled public resources for the many. Everything else being done on State St. feels like moving deck chairs around on the Titanic.
I couldn’t disagree more about “making that stretch one-way for cars” on State Street, which would be the ultimate half-measure (see: 1200 block, which should go back to fully closed except maybe for drop-offs for Granada events). We optimize for car traffic all over the city – let’s embrace having a bike- and pedestrian-friendly downtown. The issue isn’t lack of car traffic; it’s perverse incentives for commercial leases, the opportunity to build more dense housing (vs. hotels) in the area, and yes, the temporary state of some of the implementations. But we need to take the long view here – it’s about creating a vibrant, walkable environment optimized for residents with more apartments, condos, markets, gathering spaces, and community events.
How was State St. not pedestrian friendly before cars were removed? Except during parades, I never saw the sidewalks so full of people that they weren’t pedestrian friendly.
Right? I actually felt safe crossing the street when cars were on State. They seemed more likely to stop at lights than e-bikes.
I support a vision of Santa Barbara that’s also bike-friendly and a car-free State Street fills the gap we have in a North/South Class 1 bike path in the city. Where else would you put one? The popularity with bike riders proves this point and should be something we embrace and improve, not recoil from.
I’d also ask, what problem would bringing cars back solve? It never was an ideal route for local traffic, it would remove the ability to have expanded outdoor dining, and any bike/ped collisions would be worse if they were car/ped collisions.
Best I can tell, the “benefit” in the eyes of some is as a deterrent for bike riders since it would become more dangerous for them with cars in the mix. I just think there are better ways to resolve the e-bike issue and applaud the city staff for working on ideas to do that.
The number and speed of ebikes going down State far exceeds that of actual bike riders. It’s a legitimate safety issue.
What would bringing cars back solve? 1 it would slow down the ebikes. People will also use crosswalks if cars are present making it safer than the ebike speed fest we currently have. 2 visitors don’t know our town, this would enable them to drive up State until they saw something wanted to visit. 3 visitors often get stuck on the ocean side of 101 as they will not walk a mile up hill, they can’t drive, and there is no shuttle, which could be brought back with an open street. 4 parades back on State.
The expanded outdoor dinning has limited life left due to state law. When you add seats, you’re required to add bathrooms, as is currently the case throughout the rest of SB. The city is currently skirting around this but it is something they will soon have to abide by.
I would add, if cars are brought back there is nothing stopping the city from closing the 500-600 blocks (or wherever) for Th,Fri,Sat evenings when there are actually enough people in the area to justify a promenade. Many other cities do this. Oh, and it’s important to note fire trucks can’t quickly access mid block sections of State, that is another legitimate safety issue.
@Jefferson, I appreciate the dialogue, truly, as I share many of your objectives, but just differ on how to get there. IMO…
1. Address ebikes through path design elements that calm speed, reduce pedestrian wandering into bike lanes, and through enforcement during busy times (after school and weekends)
2&3. I have no problem at all with an official shuttle service up and down State Street as the sole vehicle allowed. It’s goofy for it to loop around Chapala and Anacapa.
4. Ultimately, parades are community gathering events, and a car-free street will create even more opportunities for that.
5. Fire truck and other emergency vehicle access is a no-brainer for the final design. 100% agree.
6. Closing only at certain times prevents the amenity of protected bike lanes for North/South commuting at other times, something we should encourage more people to do and have the infrastructure elsewhere in the city to connect to. Protected lanes on State Street close a critical gap.
Did we just solve the conflict around this? :)
@Sean
1. sounds expensive, being next to cars will slow them down.
2.&3. Shuttle can’t operate off an official street. That’s why the city is going to try the golf cart pilot program, which is simply idiotic.
4. It’s been closed a while and I don’t recall many community gatherings occurring because the street’s closed, definitely nothing anyhwere near the size of the parades.
5. thumbs up
6. The 1200 block is working pretty well with a one way lane and bike paths.
However, your solutions will only come from the final State St. master plan, which they haven’t even discussed potential cost let alone how they fund it. 101 underpass renovation was over $10M. That times 11 blocks = $$$$$.
The area is inherently walkable. We have multiple existing paseos which already create vehicle free corridors, and if anything feel safer than the “pedestrian promenade” which is little more than a highway for e-bikes. We don’t need to address “walkability” or “pedestrian friendliness” first – we need to just build the damn housing. This is putting the cart so far ahead of the horse, which is why it’s done nothing to “fix” State Street in the five years it’s already been in place. Those touting the slightly higher leased figures in recent years as an argument for the promenade should be honest about the caliber of businesses on State versus in the past.
It is always funny reading Modugno’s weekly rant. Old guys never bring anything good to the table.
Tell us you’re not a local without saying you’re from …..#keepLA100milesaway
When State Street was closed to car traffic in May 2020 during Covid, it was intended to be a pedestrian walkway, locals (and tourists) loved it…but E bikes were not even around then… Locals felt comfortable walking in the middle of the street, enjoying dining, and socializing in the middle of the street and could see the businesses…… E bikes have taken over and terrorized downtown… The city needs to do something about it, when it’s brought up at meetings, the common response is “there are ordinances that we’re looking at implementing” but they don’t have the Police resources to enforce them…
The quagmire that is State St epitomizes everything wrong with our local government. They are completely incapable of governing or even managing and exist to serve their own needs and wants.
Fire them all.
Every single city employee should be termed and if only if deemed absolutely necessary and actually capable, hired back.
Bring DOGE to SB. The City of Santa Barbara’s workforce and government is the problem. It’s the people, people. Not the street. The people.
Hahahaha. This is a joke post right? People complaining about SB like it’s some sort of hell hole need to go live somewhere else for awhile. And opening up state st to cars seem to be the passionate issue for our times online. Tourists drove there and they’re just as happy to walk now. I do like the idea of changing and adapting building to being in renters and mixing up actual locals with the tourists who mainly frequent lower state.
+1!
I tried driving through PCH (due to a traffic problem at the 405/101 intersection) on my way to LAX, and it appears it’s only open for residents.
Why not have the trolleys to go up and down State St? Seems like that would solve the issue for visitors who forgo the long hike from lower State to upper State.
Two 4 story buildings at Sears. Seriously, 4 story!!