••• “The city of Santa Barbara on Wednesday showed the News-Press elements of the draft State Street Master Plan that will go before the City Council in April. The draft master plan includes two options.” Brace yourselves. “Option 1 includes fast e-bikes and transit in a travel lane and road bikes in a separate bike lane, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The sidewalks on both sides of the street would be 19 feet. From 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., vehicles and delivery trucks could ride on the travel lane and E-bikes and road bikes on a separate bike lane. Option 2 is similar, except it places all e-bikes, road bikes and transit vehicles in the same lane from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In addition, the sidewalks would be 30-feet wide on both sides of State Street. From 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., vehicles and deliveries and all bikes would share the travel lane. Both plans, from Gutierrez to Victoria streets, include retractable bollards, that allow for parades and other special events.” Both seem unnecessarily complicated, but then the reasoning behind the shift at night is unexplained. (And who is going to police e-bikes in the “travel lane”?) Moreover, the city is also investigating “the possibility of making Anacapa and Chapala streets two-way, instead of the current one-way configuration.” If that means only one lane of traffic in each direction, I’ll be upset. One needs to be able to get around the people who drive 15 miles per hour.
••• “Santa Barbara County drops plan to ask voters for a sales tax increase […] The five-year, $66 million-plus budget shortfall could potentially impact everything from health care programs to emergency services. […] A poll commissioned by the county showed the tax proposal had enough support for passage. The idea was to put the tax plan on the June ballot. But the Supervisors took no action on the proposal, in effect killing it for now. County officials now say there is still the ability to put a version of it on the ballot for the November general election.” —KCLU
••• The redo of Sandpiper Golf Club finally took a step forward. —Noozhawk
••• “Less than one year after saying goodbye, the iconic Carpinteria surf shop Rincon Designs is set to return to 659 Linden Ave. later this year, to be overseen by longtime owner Matt Moore’s son, Ryan Moore, along with his wife and three children.” —Coastal View News
••• “Naples Housing Project Approved [….] Santa Barbara County Planning Commission Votes 4-1 to Approve What Could Be First of 71 Housing Projects on Undeveloped Slice of Gaviota Coast.” The project is “a seaside estate on the Naples bluff consisting of a 6,100-square-foot home, garage, ADU, 2,000-square-foot barn, pool, spa, driveway, and an onsite wastewater treatment system.” —Independent
••• “Austrian National Soccer Team Selected to Stay in Goleta, Practice at UCSB in the run-up to the World Cup. —Noozhawk
••• From a press release on BusinessWire: “Rancho Cañada Larga, a ±6,500-acre historic ranch in Ventura County, California, [has been sold] in a landmark $27.65 million land conservation transaction.” The property “was acquired by the Trust for Public Land. The acquisition ensures the permanent preservation of Rancho Cañada Larga as a public park, protecting one of the last major undeveloped land parcels in California from future development in perpetuity. Rancho Cañada Larga spans approximately 6,500 contiguous acres of rolling hills, streams, oak woodlands, and open pastureland. Located on the eastern side of State Highway 33, the ranch encompasses the Manuel, Weldon, Fresno, and Aliso Canyon watersheds, all of which are now permanently safeguarded from development.”
••• The tree of the month: “The Evergreen Pear creates a remarkable display of blossoms in mid-winter, when many other trees are dormant and quite bare. Ushering in the first hint of spring, this lovely tree will be completely covered by its white flowers. Afterwards, it will mimic a snowy winter, as its flower petals fall—gracefully as snowflakes—to cover the ground in blowing drifts.” —Edhat (photo by David Gress, courtesy Santa Barbara Beautiful)
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Have you seen the transformation taking place at the log Mackenzie market building? Wow
These draft plans are ridiculous. At this point, just revert things to what they were.
I was a promenade proponent pre-COVID. Attended the town halls and city council meetings where the topic was broached well in advance of 2020. Even in 2020 when it was first closed, it wasn’t that bad. I am a cyclist and used it regularly until 2022, by which point e-bike traffic had taken over and after being passed on the left too many times, I no longer felt safe riding.
I had dinner on State Street twice this week. Last Saturday at Joe’s we watched two teen boys circles the block at high speed, ignore red lights, and almost run over a chihuahua on a leash. I had dinner two nights ago at Sama Sama and it was quiet. In both instances though I had my 2 year old with me and she’s a runner so I never really feel that safe having her down there.
They should drop any mention of a promenade and call a spade a spade. It’s an e-bike highway.
*Meant to write “passed on the RIGHT.”
Agreed. Not one mention from the city how they would pay for all this (they are in a budget deficit as it is) or made any comment about what the economic benefit to downtown would be. We already have wide sidewalks more the adequate to handle pedestrian traffic on all but the busiest of parade days (which we don’t have on State anymore), pre-covid we already were able to shut down portions of the street for events and markets, and like or not vehicles slow down e-bikes and are necessary for out of towners to explore our downtown. I just don’t get why SB is spending millions of dollars to develop a plan they have not idea how to fund and execute. Before noon State Street is very sleepy, no need for a closure, and if you watch who does ride their bikes downtown, it’s commuters and kids, not people going downtown looking to shop and dine – which is what we need to be encouraging in our economic core. All this money and effort would have been, and will continue to be, better spent on adding more housing units downtown.