Anonymous
By an edhat reader
Week of February 27- March 3: 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 February: 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 not always fully accurate.
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. Occasionally, when particularly important for public awareness, in location or of an apparent change in commission policy, some of the agenda items will be quoted directly from the Agenda.
MONDAY, 2/27
Single Family Design Board, 11:00 A.M., DGR, in person: Consent Agenda: A. New item, 2745 Cuesta Rd., PD & FA, Neighborhood Preservation Findings are required for a new 635 sq ft ADU; B. 1620 Eucalyptus Hill Rd. PDA & FA;
Architectural Board of Review, 1 p.m., in person, Consent Agenda, cancelled.
Single Family Design Board, 3 p.m., DGR hyflex, Agenda:
- 1. Cont. Item: 229 SAN CLEMENTE STREET, PDA. Proposal to construct additions to an existing 1,010 square foot single-unit residence, comprised of a 322 square foot first floor addition and a 521 square foot second floor addition. ….) Neighborhood Preservation Findings will be required when the project is reviewed for Project Design Approval. Last reviewed 2/13.
- 2. Cont. Item: 3208 LAUREL CANYON ROAD, PDA : Additions to a single story residence; last reviewed February 13, 2023 and January 17. Neighborhood Preservation findings required.
- 3. Cont. Item: 1414 SANTA ROSA AVE., Concept Review; Interior remodel and proposal to construct a 386 square foot first floor addition, and a 766 square foot second story Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), to the existing 1,521 square foot one-story single-unit residence. Last reviewed 11/07/2022.
- 4. New Item: 1350 LAS POSITAS ROAD, Concept Review … Proposal to construct a 3,196 square-foot two-story single-unit residence with an 805 square-foot attached garage on a vacant parcel in the Hillside Design District. … All existing trees will remain. The proposed total of 4,001 square feet on a 55,949 square foot lot.
…Architectural drawings and public comment re San Clemente: link.
TUESDAY, 2/28
City Council, special meeting, 11:00 a.m., Council Chambers, Closed Session, Agenda: Conference with Real Property negotiators “…to consider price and terms of payment for the possible re-negotiation of the Paseo Nuevo Ground Lease and the Macy’s Ground Lease. …”
City Council Finance Committee, 12:30 p.m., DGR, hyflex, Agenda: Fiscal Year 2023, 2nd-Quarter Review, Receive, Accept and Recommend…. Scroll Council Agenda Packet for details.
City Council, regular meeting, 2:00 p.m., Council Chambers, Hyflex, 2 P.M., access info at the Agenda; includes the Consent Calendar, Items 2-12; also see the lengthy (253 pgs) Council Packet, with details of the Consent Calendar and the 6-month interim financial figures, the Downtown BID and the Old Town BID. Included also in the CAR, is a carefully researched and beautifully-illustrated, detailed report by City Historian Nicole Hernandez on the State Street Parkway, Agenda Item # 13.
Public Hearings: the information for both of these is in the above-mentioned Council Packet:
13: Designation of State Street Parkway between Mission Street and Constance Avenue as a Landmark. NB – It is known to Edhat that there have been public comment letters submitted on this issue, but except for one at the HLC page, there are none readily available, if at all, on the Council webpage(s) for members of the public to read and learn what others are thinking on this item. (Parenthetically, where any and all letters about city issues, agendized issues, from the public to the City Council are stored is not clear.)
14: Public Hearing for the 2023 Downtown and Old Town Business Improvement Districts Assessments.
Community Development & Human Services Committee regular meeting, listed in the City Calendar as scheduled, at 6:00 p.m., DGR, but as of Saturday, no agenda listed.
WEDNESDAY, 3/1
Historic Landmarks Commission, 11 a.m., in person DGR, Consent Calendar Agenda:
A. Cont. Item, FA: 1250 E. de la Guerra St.; last reviewed 11/9/2022.
B. New Item, PDA & FA: 800 Alvarado Pl (El Encanto Hotel Historic District;
C. New Item, PDA & FA, 1120 Alameda Padre Serra, replacing a 437 sq ft concrete driveway;
D. New Item, PDA & FA, 1014 Santa Barbara St.,
Architectural Drawings, link; this link is also for Staff Reports and Public Comment – as of Sunday, 2/26, one Public Comment letter re City Council agenda item 13.
Historic Landmarks Commission, 1:30 p.m., regular meeting, hyflex – Agenda:
1. Discussion Item, 1:45-2:15: Draft Objective Design and Development Standards; ” Request for specific input on the Administrative Draft Objective Design and Development Standards. The Administrative Draft was prepared by Opticos Design Inc.” from their website: “Opticos principal Daniel Parolek inspired a new movement for housing choice in 2010 when he introduced the concept of the ‘missing middle’ in American housing. Today, Opticos creates innovative architectural designs to help build walkable communities with unique, diverse housing choices that are attainable for all.” DRAFT Objective Design and Development Standards, Objective Designs Standards Staff Report: link, at Staff Reports.
2. Cont. Item, 2:15-3:15, Concept Review: 20 E. de la Guerra St (De La Guerra Plaza) “The De La Guerra Plaza Revitalization Project proposes to raise the entire Plaza, as well as De La Guerra Street between Anacapa Street and State Street, to be level with the existing sidewalk and install new landscaping, water feature, restrooms, pavilion, stage, art nodes, lighting, and trash/ recycling. The 2011 Historic Structures/Sites Report accepted by the HLC found that De La Guerra Plaza is eligible for designation as a City of Santa Barbara Landmark, listing in the California Register of Historical Resources, and the National Register of Historic Places. …” No final appealable action taken here; last reviewed by the HLC on 4/22/2022. Historic Structures Report.
3. New Item: Concept Review 3237 State St. “Proposal for conversion of the existing 14,494-square-foot building to a new community health clinic…” at State and Las Positas…. Historic Structures Report.
4. Cont. Item, FA, 1242 Dover Lane: “… construction of a new 2,003-square-foot two-story addition (including basement)” Plans received PDA on 1/18/2023 and HLC previously accepted the Phase 1 and 2 of the Historic Structure/Sites Report.
5. One-Time Pre-Application Review: 901 State St., Proposal for adaptive reuse of existing two-story building….”
Architectural Drawings, link; this link is also for Staff Reports and Public Comment – as of Sunday, 2/26, one Public Comment letter re City Council agenda item 13.
THURSDAY, 3/2
Street Tree Advisory Committee, 8:30 am, regular meeting, Parks office, 302 E. Ortega Street, neither televised nor Zoomed. Agenda: Staff report:
A. Tree removal considerations:
- Street trees: 1. 225 and 233 S. Milpas Street – (4) Afrocarpus gracilior, Fern Pine, (5) Washingtonia robusta, Mexican Fan Palm, and (1) Erythrina coralloides, Naked Coral Tree – Alexis Flores, City of Santa Barbara Public Works
- Setback trees: 1. 810 E. Carrillo Road – Fraxinus uhdei, Evergreen Ash – Mark Philibosian; 2. 234 Uhlan Court – Cedrus deodara, Deodar Cedar – Julius Peterkin Jr.; 3. 2132 Mission Ridge Road – (7) Quercus agrifolia, Coast Live Oak – Teri Gabrielsen
B. Street Tree Master Plan: 1. All of Deerpath Road – designation change – staff; 2. State Street Median – designation modification – staff
Planning Commission regular meeting, 1 p.m, Council Chambers; meeting cancelled.
Building and Fire Code Board of Appeals, 2:30 p.m., DGR, meeting cancelled with noticed items postponed until further notice.
FRIDAY, 3/3
CLOSED – City Administrative Offices
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.”
