By the City of Goleta
The City of Goleta’s Design Review Board is holding a Conceptual and Preliminary Design Review of a proposed new medical office building at its next meeting on May 23, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in person at Goleta City Hall Council Chambers (130 Cremona Drive) and via the Zoom platform. A link can be found in the agenda, posted at least 72 hours in advance at http://cityofgoleta.org/goletameetings. The public may also view the meeting on the City’s website or Goleta TV Channel 19.
The applicant, Wynmark Company, has proposed two 18,600-square foot, two-story medical office buildings (totaling 37,200 square feet) for providers of medical and wellness services, with an accessory childcare facility. The project location is in the heart of western Goleta adjacent to Ice in Paradise and Girsh Park. The project includes 2,113 square feet inside the western building for a childcare facility to support future employees. The childcare facility also includes a 1,200-square foot outdoor play yard attached to the childcare facility. The project site is on a 4.32-acre parcel that is partially developed with a 175-space parking lot and bioswale.
An additional parking lot will be created on the site, which will have 71 standard-size parking stalls (9’x16’ with a 2’ overhang) and eight ADA-compliant parking spaces. This configuration allows for drive aisles that are 26’ in width, as requested by the Fire Department. Of the eight ADA compliant parking spaces, three spaces will be van accessible. Along the southern edge of the new parking lot, there will be 15 electrical vehicle charging stations (seven dual-port, one single-port). For each of the two buildings, there will be six covered and six uncovered spaces for bicycle parking, located within 20’ of the buildings, for a total of 12 covered and 12 uncovered spaces. There are four electrical outlets for e-bikes also included in the project design.
Rendering of Building B from the parking lot looking Northeast
As part of this project, landscape buffers will be provided along Santa Felicia Drive, Storke Road, and Frey Way to screen and enhance the project boundaries. Plantings will include drought-tolerant and low-maintenance trees, shrubs, and ground cover. Within the project site, there will be landscaped islands in the parking lot at least every eight parking spaces or, occasionally, every six to seven parking spaces. Landscaping within these islands will include trees to provide shade for surrounding vehicles and to mitigate the effect of heat in the parking lot. The buildings will be enhanced with landscaping, both within planter areas as well as individual tree wells. The lighting in the existing parking lot will remain, with additional LED pole-mounted lighting proposed in the new parking lot.
Following the Conceptual and Preliminary Design Review hearing on May 23, the project will be considered by the Planning Commission and City Council for action on the following applications: (i) a Specific Plan Amendment to remove this parcel (073-440-026) from the Camino Real Specific Plan; (ii) an Ordinance Amendment to remove the Specific Plan Zoning Overlay on this parcel; (iii) an Amendment to the Camino Real Development plan to remove this parcel from the 1997 Development Plan; and (iv) a new Development Plan to construct two 18,600-square foot two-story medical office buildings with accessory childcare use. The City Council will also review and consider the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis for this project.
Written submittals concerning agenda items may be sent to the Design Review Board Secretary, Mary Chang, at mchang@cityofgoleta.org. Written information must be submitted to the Design Review Board (DRB) no later than 24 hours prior to the Design Review Board meeting. Communication received after that time may not be reviewed by the DRB prior to the meeting. Sign up here to have DRB Agendas sent to your inbox.
Please direct questions and/or comments regarding this project and the DRB Conceptual and Preliminary Review hearing to Associate Planner Christina McGuire at cmcguire@cityofgoleta.org.
Nobody cares about goleta buildings
No one cares about your opinions.
As a matter of fact, if I never again saw a comment from you, that would be excellent.
You’re selfish and rude.
GETOFF – story of your life, eh?
What an odd thing to say. We veery much care about Goleta Buildings. An I am excite to have some medical offices close by. Our family is long-done with child care needs, but I know that is an issue for so many and so happy to see that component as well!
I am curious what medical provider is planning on leasing these buildings, UCLA?, Sutter?
UCLA, Sutter, Dignity All organizations that will not reinvest excess money locally.
How will these offices be staffed? As a local doctor, I recently was faced with losing my office manager of sixteen years, when her family of six lost their double garage housing in Oldtown and could not find new housing, despite my paying her $35 an hour and her husband working three jobs. For four months, she looked for affordable housing while I advertised for a qualified replacement employee. She was completely unable to find affordable housing and planned a forced move to Palmdale. I continued to look for an experienced dental employee to replace her, but in four months there were no local qualified applicants, and even no applicants from Lompoc or Oxnard, which I would not have considered due to the stress of commuting on the employee. At the last moment, I was able to locate a dwelling that had been abandoned on some agricultural property, and she was able to move her family just before being officially evicted. But that dwelling is scheduled to be demolished soon, so this is just a temporary respite of the problem. I will be back again looking for a new solution. Most Santa Barbara businesses are faced with this dilemma of no local affordable housing and a shortage of available potential employees to fill staffing positions, whether it is a supermarket, a hardware store, a plumber, or a healthcare provider. Who needs more medical offices when we cannot staff them? Where are the mandates for more affordable housing? Buyers of more-expensive housing require even more support people; where are those people coming from? Not from our local community. They are sacrificing their families by spending two or more hours on the road each day, wearing out their cars and polluting the air just to have a job here. They would all choose to live here along with the people they are serving. but they cannot afford the rent. We need to legislate our community leaders to mandate a priority of affordable housing and prevent developers from just creating expensive developments meant for moneyed people. We need a whole community that houses everyone involved in our economy.
This is a great comment and a perfect example of the serious problems being faced by local businesses. The city/county has been mandated to find housing solutions. However, whenever more affordable housing is proposed the old timers here raise an uproar over development and change. The anti-housing coalition is unfortunately much more vocal in fear of risking their overinflated home values.
Amen! It seems like new business space should be required to include affordable housing for the employees who will work in the building. How about a third floor on this building that would be all housing?
Having more space for childcare is HUGE! Goleta and SB are in short supply with waitlists for over a year, especially for babies. More options for toddlers but those are still mostly full. ANY building or permits that has plans for childcare should be fast tracked.