Anonymous
By an edhat reader
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 were requests for coverage of Carpinteria and Goleta; volunteers to do that and/or County meetings, please contact info@edhat.com.
Santa Barbara has a City Calendar of meetings; for May: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/cals/. (NB: City Calendar is a guide and not always accurate.) City TV covers many of the meetings and has reruns and updates with newly-scheduled meetings: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/cityadmin/programming.asp?Month=5&Year=2022#Top .
May has been budget time for the Council when each department has presented its budget for Council approval and adoption. Most of the council members have attended, absent has been Councilmember A. Gutierrez; by this week, the hearings have wound down. except for Public Works and General Fund/Measure C on Wednesday. Final budget deliberations and adoption will be in June.
There’s a new Financial Transparency Tool on the Budget & Finance page, but, regrettably, although the graphics are pretty, it didn’t lead us to departmental budgets.
Common acronyms, abbreviations: hybrid, meeting access is both in person and via Zoom or other web; ADU, Accessory Dwelling Unit; PDA, Project Design Approval; FA, Final Approval. Meeting locations: City Council chambers upstairs at City Hall, 735 Anacapa Street; David Gebhard Room, 630 Garden Street, or where noted.
If we’ve mis-posted an address or there’s a meeting you’d like to have listed, please note in the Comments section below. Thanks!
MONDAY, 5/23
Architectural Board of Review, Consent meeting, cancelled.
Single Family Design Board, 11:00 a.m., DGR, Consent Calendar, no electronic access, no City TV; agenda: 15 W Valerio, new ADU, PDA, FA; 1930 Mission Ridge Rd, PDA/FA; 933 Roble Lane, new ADU, PDA,/FA; Architectural drawings available here.
Single Family Design Board, 3:00 p.m., DGR, regular meeting, agenda, with electronic access; 910 San Carlos Rd, PDA; 2315 Edgewater Way, Concept Review, Hillside Design District and Coastal Zone; 545 La Marina Drive, a new item, Concept Review: demolish an existing 1,730 square foot single-story single-unit residence and all other on-site structures and construct a new 3,435 square foot two-story single-unit residence 455 square-foot detached garage; 1326 Hillcrest Rd, Proposal to demolish a 2,536 square-foot single-story, single-unit residence and 647 square-foot attached garage, and construct a new 4,005 square-foot single-story, single-unit residence, PDA/FA. Architectural drawings and public comment pdfs available here.
City Council, Special Meeting, 1:30 p.m., Site Visit 1460 La Cima Rd, subject of an Appeal to be heard on 5/24.
TUESDAY, 5/24
City Council, regular meeting, 2 p.m., Council Chambers, hybrid; agenda, Agenda Packet (218 pgs., including several February 2021 Minutes), Consent Calendar, items 1-12; Item 13, Public Hearing Appeal of 140 La Cima Rd., Council Agenda Report.
item 14: Advisory Committee interviews, next: 6/7, 4 p.m., and 6/14, 6 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, 5/25
City Council, 9 a.m., City Council chambers, hybrid: budget meeting, agenda: a presentation from the Public Works Department and the General Fund / Measure C Capital Program regarding their Fiscal Year 2023 Recommended Budget.
Historic Landmarks Commission Consent Calendar, 11 a.m., DGR, cancelled.
Historic Landmarks Commission, regular meeting, DGR, 1:30 p.m., agenda, hybrid participation, electronic access info on the agenda page: 3703 State St, Chick-fil-A, archaeology report; 101 Garden St, (cont) Concept Review, owner: Wright Family Ltd. Partnership, new 250-room hotel, corner of Garden and E. Yanonrali Streets, all existing structures and uses to be removed; 1815 State ST, pre-application consultation, new 16-unit, four-story residential development under the City’s residential density bonus program; 820 Cima Linda Lane, “The Spanish Colonial Revival style residence, designed by noted architect Carleton Winslow, FAIA, in 1926, is listed on the City’s Historic Resources Inventory…..” Part of the file is the Historic Structures Report; 256 Eucalyptus Hill Dr, Structure of Merit, FA.
Architectural drawings and general public comment: here; as of Sunday, one letter of public comment from Cass Ensberg on behalf of Citizens for the Restoration of Public Equity.
Parks & Recreation, 4 p.m., City Council Chamber, hybrid; agenda: Street Tree Advisory Committee recommendations; director’s report.
THURSDAY, 5/26
Fire and Police Commission, 4 p.m., no indication as of Sunday, 5/22, where this meeting will be held or if it will be televised. Agenda.
FRIDAY, 5/27
bi-weekly Administration holiday
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BUDGET HEARINGS SCHEDULE, fiscal year 2023, link. These are work sessions and public hearings, with a chance for the public to speak. On June 8, 6-9 p.m.: Committee Budget Recommendations to Council; Council Budget Deliberations; Final Council Budget Direction to Staff ; Planned Close of Budget Hearings. Budget Adoption will be on June 21.
Of general interest:
City Advisory Commissions are listed with their duties and powers described in the Charter of the City of Santa Barbara, Article Vlll, Appointive Boards and Commissions. Others may be formed by the City Council for certain issues of public concern. For the next three weeks there will be Council interviews of the applicants for committee vacancies.
AIA-Santa Barbara, August 2020, State Street Promenade and housing community survey results, more than 4,800 responses, linked here.
A useful City webpage is Government Transparency: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/transparency/default.asp.
Oddly not listed under 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.”
