••• The Independent digs into the people behind the absurdly large Builder’s Remedy developments proposed for next to the Mission, on the Lower Riviera, and in Carpinteria: “real estate advisor Ben Eilenberg, and Craig Martin Smith and Stephanie Smith, a couple in the real estate business.” Of note is this, about a lawsuit filed by Frontier Communications against the developers regarding the Carp project:
It claimed the entire project was a ruse, and the developers were proposing something “doomed to fail” so they could then sue the city. […] When the project, which the complaint called “facially absurd,” gets pushback from local governments, they “sue in order to reap invented damages and attorneys’ fees.” [….]
In December 2025, Ben Eilenberg spoke at a Los Gatos City Council Meeting about that project, […] saying he was part of a group that builds multi-family homes to address the state’s housing shortfall.
Eilenberg said the town had “taken positions” that go against California law, and that its multiple lawsuits, including the one against his development, would cost the town in attorney fees and in penalties.
“I’m not going to exaggerate to you,” he said. “We recently cashed the attorneys’ fees check for another city, and are in final negotiations on the amount of attorneys’ fees that a third city will be paying us.”
••• “Deputy Registrar of Voters Martin Cobos said they will have an estimate on the number of uncounted ballots on Thursday afternoon, and will have updated results around that time.” —Noozhawk
••• That said, the Santa Barbara News-Press says that Devon Wardlow, Gabe Escobedo and Ian Baucke have been elected to the Santa Barbara city council: “Santa Barbara on Tuesday night elected a slate of under-40-year-old progressives to the City Council. […] ‘We are going to have the most progressive City Council that we may have ever seen,’ then-leading District 6 candidate Gabe Escobedo said on election night.”
••• And Salud Carbajal and Gregg Hart were reelected to Congress and the State Assembly, respectively. —KCLU (and here)
••• “What We Know About Results in All 14 California Ballot Propositions.” —CalMatters via Noozhawk
••• “The space occupied by The Grove Pickleball [née The Picklr] at the Fairview Shopping Center is being offered for lease, commercial real estate firm Hayes Commercial Group announced Monday, though the facility will continue to operate while a new tenant is sought.” —Edhat
••• The tree of the month is the silk floss tree, “perhaps the most astounding tree seen in Santa Barbara. Remarkably, it blooms in the fall. Exotic-looking, it is covered with intensely colored blossoms, bears large seed pods, and has a trunk covered with oversized thorns. […] After pollination, the blooms develop plump seed pods that look like enormous dangling sausages with smooth green skin. When ripe, they turn dark brown, dry and crack open to expose black seeds covered white cotton-like stuffing.” —Edhat (photo by David Gress, courtesy Santa Barbara Beautiful)
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Great article in the Indy about those projects.