Anonymous
By an edhat reader
Week of January 23 – 27, 2023: council and advisory committee meetings of Santa Barbara City
A long-time Edhat subscriber, hoping for more public participation in our local government, thought it would be helpful and interesting for the community to have a weekly listing of selected meetings, those of city-wide interest. We agreed. Please tell us what you think. There have been requests for coverage of other jurisdictions; volunteers to do that, please contact info@edhat.com. If we’ve mis-posted an address or there’s a meeting that we failed to list, please note the correction in the Comments section below. Thanks!
Santa Barbara has a City Calendar of meetings; for January: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/cals/. (NB: City Calendar is a guide to many public meetings.) City TV covers many of the meetings and has reruns. However, Consent Calendar meetings are not televised. Our new city website design is a mixed blessing, prettier-looking but with some information harder to find if it exists at all.
Common acronyms, abbreviations: hybrid or Hyflex, meeting access is both in person and via Zoom or other webinar; PDA, Project Design Approval; FA, Final Approval; CAR, Council Agenda Report. Meeting locations: City Council chambers upstairs at City Hall, 735 Anacapa Street; David Gebhard Room (DGR), 630 Garden Street; or where noted. Noted also for some Council and Advisory Committee meetings are non-public addresses; these are addresses for those public servants who choose to attend the meetings at home or elsewhere.
MONDAY, 1/23
Single Family Design Board, 11:00 A.M., DGR, in person: A. Consent Agenda: New Item, Concept Review: 900 Las Alturas Rd.; B. Continued: Final Approval, 102 Jorgenson ln; Proposal to construct a new 3,732 square foot single unit residence with an attached 551 square foot 2-car garage, and a 21 square foot attached storage space located on a vacant lot in the Hillside Design District. … Project requires substantial conformance to the plans that received Project Design Approval on November 7, 2022, which is when the project was last reviewed. C. Review after Final Approval, 506 YANKEE FARM RD Project plans must demonstrate substantial conformance to the plans that received Project Design Approval on August 17, 2020.
Architectural drawings, link.
Architectural Board of Review, 1 P.M., DGR, in person, Consent Calendar, cancelled.
Architectural Board of Review, 3 P.M., DGR, hyflex, Agenda:
- 1. Continuing item: 701 N. Milpas (ex- 711 N. Milpas), PDA for “Proposal for a new four-story, mixed-use, Average Unit-Size Density (AUD) project on a 1.52-acre lot located at the northwest corner of Milpas and Ortega Streets. … Project received approval of a Development Agreement by the City Council, and approval of a Height Exception, Front Setback Modification, and Parking Modification by the Planning Commission.”
- 2. new item: 110-150 S. La Cumbre, Concept Review: “The project consists of a proposal to merge the lots, demolish the existing 2,194-square-foot nonresidential building and construct a 922-square-foot, automatic, self-serve, drive-thru, carwash with a 116-linear-foot dedicated approach lane for queuing of cars….”;
- 3. 515 W. Los Olivos, cont. item, PDA, for “Proposal for 6 residential units comprising of a two-story duplex and a three-story fourplex using the Average Unit-Size Density (AUD) program. Unit mix includes (1) studio, (1) one bedroom unit, (2) two bedroom units, and (2) four bedroom units….” where the existing residence will be demolished.
- 414 W. Canon Perdido St., cont. item, PDA, the proposed is a two-story, two-unit residential AUD, with the proposed density being 25 units/acre on the 3539 sq ft lot.
- 425 Garden St., cont. item, PDA, for “demolition of all on-site structures and construction of a four-story 36-unit residential complex with common rooftop amenities…”of which four will be very low income rentals, two moderate income rentals, and 30 market-rate rentals. Architectural drawings and Public comment to 515 W. Los Olivos and general, re parklets: link.
TUESDAY, 1/24
Sign Committee, 9 A.M., in person, DGR, Agenda: two items referred from conforming review 1. 3609 State St. # A, and 2. 3609 State St., 3. New, Concept Review: 12E. Montecito St.., 4. New, 17 W. Haley St.
City Council, Finance Committee, 12:30 p.m., DGR, Agenda (part of the regular City Council agenda): Approve the establishment of a new Low-Income Homeowner Rehabilitation Pilot Program by providing up to $50,000 in grant funding….
City Council, regular meeting, 2:00 p.m., Council Chambers, Hyflex, 2 P.M., access info at the Agenda; Agenda packet, 170 pgs., including:the Consent Calendar, Item 2, making the Finance Committee a standing committee; item 10, an agreement with City Net to pay $450,000 for homeless outreach, etc.; item 13, setting 3/14, 3/13-site visit, for hearing an Appeal of the PC’s PDA of 621 W. Micheltorena.) Administration, city administrator: items 14, 15, Council chair/vice chair, commission, etc. liaisons;
Item 16: State Street “Create State” Master Plan Update (610.04) Recommendation: That Council receive a progress report for the State Street “Create State” Master Plan.
Item 17., interviews of the applicants to the Historic Landmarks, Housing Authority, and Planning Commissions.
Community Development and Human Services Committee, 6 p.m., in person, DGR, Agenda, administrative and setting the next meeting date.
WEDNESDAY, 1/25
Staff Hearing Officer, 9 A.M. Meeting cancelled.
Parks and Recreation Commission, 4:00 p.m., City Council Chamber, hyflex, Agenda: (plus various administrative items):
- Item 3, Street Tree Advisory Committee recommendations: approve removal of a Jacaranda and a Coast Live Oak at 2033 Chapala; deny the removal of a Ficus benjamina at 26 La Cadena St.; conditionally approve two others @ 3139 Sea Cliff and 229 Mohawk; D. changes to city street master plan for 0-200 blocks of W. Pueblo.
- Item 4, Director’s report, noting damage to East Beach area, tree loss and Community Priority funding for Dwight Murphy Park.
- Item 5. Community Garden (Action) report with recommendations for changes.
Staff Reports, including street trees recommendations, Director’s Report, and new Community Gardens access recommendations, Community Garden changes and proposed Rental Agreement.
THURSDAY, 1/26
Community Development and Human Services Committee, 4 p.m., in person, DGR, Agenda, Interviews. Staff reports.
FRIDAY, 1/27
Administrative offices open.
Of general interest:
City Advisory Commissions are listed with their duties and powers described in the Charter of the City of Santa Barbara, See: Article Vlll, Appointive Boards and Commissions, pg; 25 et seg. Other commissions may be formed by the City Council for certain issues of public concern. Santa Barbara Municipal Code. The City Council meets at 2 p.m., Tuesdays, except for these holidays: January 3, January 17, February 21, March 28, April 4, May 30, June 20, July 4, July 11, August 8, August 15, September 5, November 14, November 21, November 28, December 19, and December 26, 2023. The regular Council meetings are sometimes preceded by their Finance and Ordinance committees whose agendas are part of the regular council meeting agenda; the Council also has a Legislative Committee and a Sustainability Committee, each of which meets irregularly.
AIA-Santa Barbara, August 2020, State Street Promenade and housing community survey results, more than 4,800 responses, linked here. Civic groups concerned about city government: Allied Neighborhoods Association, Citizens Planning Association, League of Women Voters -Santa Barbara, and various hyperlocal neighborhood associations.
City of Santa Barbara says it emphasizes transparency: https://santabarbaraca.gov/government-transparency. Not listed under city transparency is a link to the Ralph M. Brown Act (“Brown Act“), “In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.”
