Anonymous
By an edhat reader
Week of October 24: 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 October: (NB: City Calendar is a guide to many public meetings, not always accurate.) City TV covers many of the meetings and has reruns and updates with newly-scheduled meetings. 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, with access instructions on the agendas; 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, 10/24
Single Family Design Board, 11:00 A.M., DGR, in person: Consent Agenda: 1859 Eucalyptus Hill Rd., (cont) Concept Review; 1625 Mira Mesa Dr. (cont) Concept Review; Architectural drawings, link.
Architectural Board of Review, 1 P.M., DGR, Consent, Cancelled.
Single Family Design Board, 3 P.M., DGR, Hyflex: Agenda: 2501 Medcliff Road., Concept Review; 2339 Edgewater Way, concept review, demolish 1976 sq ft residence, build 3707 sq ft residence, plus an ADR; 229 Vista del Mar Drive, PDA & FA, proposal for a 1,200 sq ft two-story ADR; 2121 Las Tunas Road, PDA & FA. new 4. 412 sq ft. residence with associated “landscape improvements” of tree, eucalyptus and oak removals, PDA; 2731 El Prado Raod, PDA & FA. Architectural drawings, link.
TUESDAY, 10/25
City Council Ordinance Committee, 12:30 P.M., Hyflex, access info in the Agenda: amendments of the powers and duties of the Ordinance Committee.
City Council, regular meeting, Hyflex, 2 P.M., city council chambers, access info at the Agenda; Consent calendar includes item 12, investment report; item 13 from Community Development, “Given ongoing challenges to recruit new Single Family Design Board (SFDB) members and maintain a quorum for their biweekly full board meetings, staff is requesting to amend the SFDB membership to be comprised of five members (instead of seven members), to establish that three members would constitute a quorum (instead of four members), and that attendance by a member with professional qualifications in architecture is unnecessary to achieve quorum….”
WEDNESDAY, 10/26
Historic Landmarks Commission, 11 A.M., in person, Consent Agenda; 1118 E. Cabrillo Blvd, a postponed item, PDA, FA, Historic Significance report, link. 1332 Laguna St., a cont. item, Historic Significance Report, PDA & FA Memo; 1432 Bath St., new, PDA; 1235 N. Salsipuedes St., new, PDA & FA for an “as built” fence; Historic Significance Report; public comment letters, 3, as of Sunday 10/23; Architectural drawings.
Historic Landmarks Commission, 1:30, DGR, in person, Agenda: State Street Parkway from Mission to Constance, Historic Significance Report; 540 W. Pueblo, misc.action, structure of merit designations; 1234 Ferrelo Road , Historic Designation Report, link; Architectural drawings.
Parks & Recreation Commission, 4 PM, Council Chamber, Street Tree Advisory Committee recommendations, 7 sections of the city; reports on status of the parks and recreation programs; work plan and goals of the Urban Forestry program.
THURSDAY, 10/27
Fire and Police Commission, 4 PM at 121 W. Carrillo Street, Fire Station, meeting cancelled.
Transportation and Circulation Committee, 5:30 PM, DGR, Agenda: Castillo undercrossing report on pedestrian/bicycle improvements planning effort; Draft 5-Year Public Works Streets and Transportation Capital Improvement Program Summary and Draft Fiscal Years 2024-2025 Streets Capital Improvement Program Budget. (This meeting is not listed in the Calendar, but it is listed on City TV.)
FRIDAY, 10/28
Meeting-free. Biweekly city administrative offices closed.
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.
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. YouTube of Friday’s, 10/14 joint meeting, Planning Commission and HLC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOqGskMkKBs, starting at about 16 minutes.
City of Santa Barbara 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.”
