Is Santa Barbara ’s Riviera being treated like it’s a developers’ playground?

A Community Post from a concerned reader. --Sara

Chapala Street, Outer State Street , the Mesa, St. Francis neighborhood, Waterfront, Hidden Valley , and now the Riviera .
Virtually every part of the City has felt the crushing impact of the City’s practice of piecemeal planning and approving projects that violate the City’s zoning ordinance, through the granting of “modifications.” This “death by a thousand cuts” will eventually destroy the very character and charm of the community so many have worked so hard to maintain.

On Tuesday, April 28th, at 2:00 p.m. the City Council has the opportunity to uphold sound planning practices and preserve the historic qualities of the El Encanto Hotel by upholding the appeal filed by a group of concerned residents.

We all loved the El Encanto Hotel and want to see it restored, updated into a first class hotel that will continue to be a vital part of the historic Riviera neighborhood as it has for 96 years.

But, since the Orient Express purchased the El Encanto with a Master Plan just completed in 2004, the new owners have received permission by city staff to change the approved plan five different times, and a modification to the zoning code with virtually no public notice or review. This included tearing down the historic main building, and replacing it with one that is substantially larger and taller, all without any environmental review whatsoever!

Now they are asking to add an additional 17,000 square feet of new non-residential development on the site, including transferring 10,000 square feet of development rights from an industrial area of town to the residential Riviera . This far exceeds the voters intent to limit non-residential development by adopting Measure E, and again with no environmental review.

We support the restoration and modernization of the El Encanto Hotel, we recognize the importance of this hotel to the local community and our economy. Now that the Orient Express has told the community that they have halted construction because of the economy, there should be no rush to approve a plan that doesn’t fit our community character or that violates our zoning ordinances.

Help uphold Santa Barbara existing zoning ordinances.

Zoning for the El Encanto is R-H. This Resort-Residential Hotel Zone, was initiated in 1957, and updated in 1974 and clearly states the “Legislative Intent” as:

The purpose of the R-H Zone is to provide for the highly specialized uses that are associated with the development and operation of resort-residential hotels and to insure the least possible conflict with or disturbance of the amenities attached to and associated with adjoining residential areas.

The current proposal before the Council seeks 4 more modifications to the Zoning Ordinance! A “modification” is the City’s term for allowing projects to be approved that do not comply with the requirements of the City’s own Municipal Code. This is happening all over town, and must end.

One of our major concerns is the introduction of a huge, redesigned hotel operations and utility distribution complex combined with a 43 car valet parking lot proposed for the corner of Alvarado Place and Mission Ridge Road – one of the gateways to the Riviera .

Previous plans shared with the neighbors and the community, provided for subterranean parking spaces beneath tennis courts. Most in the neighborhood and community felt this was reasonable, and the immediate neighbors supported it. However, without communicating with any of the neighbors or those most effected, the out of town (actually out of country) developers attempted an end run and revised the plans in a manner that will destroy the neighborhood character as we know and love it. This is inconsistent with sound community planning, and we need your help to make our voices heard.

The newly revised plan includes a 43 space, above ground, tandem valet parking lot and the relocation, from the main building, all of the ‘back of house’ operations, administration, laundry, dry cleaning, employee rooms as well as the installation of a centralized industrial plant for heating and cooling for all 96 rooms, hot water boilers, back up generators and electrical transfer stations. In other words, all operational equipment and personnel would be moved out of the main building and away from the guest rooms and placed directly adjacent to the residential neighborhood.

THE RIVIERA’S FATE WILL BE POLLUTION, NOISE, BLOCKED VIEWS, CONGESTION, AND LOSS OF HISTORICAL CHARACTER.

We know there are other ways to design this project so it can be in conformance with existing City codes and ordinances.

Next Tuesday, the project is finally going before officials we elected, and who have indicated in the past that they support Santa Barbara ’s historic fabric and maintaining our quality of life. We are hopeful that they will stand up to the developers make a positive decision to uphold the intent of the zoning code and protect the residential ambiance of this area, by upholding the appeal, and require Orient Express to change their plans to fit the community character.

Downtown Update: Chapala One -- What Happened?

An avid reader pointed out that Barney Brantingham's column this week in The Santa Barbara Independent went over some of the details in the doomed, $40 million Chapala One condo project that has failed to sell even one unit. The project is unsolvent and going into bankruptcy.

I bristle when I hear Don Hughes representative tell Barney, however, that: “The residential market got clobbered,” Raftery said. “San Diego is a complete disaster as to condo sales,” along with places like Phoenix and Las Vegas."

I say this is an unfair comparison and fails to take into account the type of growth we are talking about. Each of these cities overbuilt without the proper resources behind the growth. He's also comparing $1.5 to $3 million condos on State Street to homes that look more like the opening credits of the Showtime series "Weeds". Orange County type lot line to lot line homes or condos this is not. The key here is the price.

Critics like former Mayor Sheila Lodge and Mayor Marty Blum are correct -- these kind of high prices do not solve the workforce housing problem in Santa Barbara. The rest of the neighborhood on lower Chapala doesn't help either. It's fine for me but isn't going to convince the Land Rover set that they need to move down to lower State Street. More appropriate would have been sub-$1 million condos -- so that living downtown might at least begin to appeal to people tired of driving from the hinterlands to work in Santa Barbara.

Like Chapala One, will Paseo Chapala, Villa Andaluz and the new development on West de la Guerra dissapoint?

Manhattan Isla Vista?

A community post written by a rock-star reader:

We've just learned that the entire State housing mandate for unincorporated Santa Barbara County will be satisfied by new development of 1235 new dwellings in Isla Vista.

UCSB plans to add 4011 dwellings (page 21 of the LRDP) Will the Isla Vista and UCSB become South Coast's Manhattan? Will avaricious developers like Conquest, who evicted families from the Cedarwood Apartments and is now being sued by USC take over?

BTW, allegedly a Conquest official likened their company to Al-Qaeda, in the LA Times article. Is this all the consequence of Goleta's omission of IV from its Cityhood drive in 2001? Should the City of Santa Barbara, which shares a border with UCSB and IV along the airport boundaries, annex UCSB and IV?

Let's Review UCSB's Long Range Development Plan

From a citizen stringer:
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A topic that needs discussion and airing is UCSB's LRDP, which is the major planning exercise for UCSB. The old one was put together in 1990, and the new one was due in 2005, and the public process has just begun for the new one. LRDP stands for `Long Range Development Plan', and that is UCSB's major blueprint for the future, like the General Plan for a City.

UCSB's LRDP website is:

http://www.ucsbvision2025.com/

In the reports there, you can read that UCSB planned in 1990 to grow to 20,000 students, 1,175 faculty, 2,650 staff, and to add 1.21 million square feet of buildings, 2,000 student beds, and 50 new faculty housing units by 2005.

In fact, the numbers now are 20,000 students, 1,054 faculty, 3,631 staff, 1 million square feet of buildings, 1,776 student beds, and 172 faculty housing units. The main difference is a lot more staff; the faculty housing has actually not yet been built.

The plans for the next 20 years include: adding 5,000 new students, 300 new faculty, 1,400 new staff, 5,386 student beds, and 1,800 new housing units for faculty and staff.

UCSB To Add Another Building/Lego Block

Recently, we had a heated discussion about UCSB and growth. Another lego block is set to go up in front of Robertson Gym. Project Manager Karl Burrelsman told the Valley Voice the following about the project:

“Classrooms and offices for the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and the Koegel Autism Center will occupy one of the buildings. Classrooms and offices for the College of Letters and Science will occupy another. The third building, named the Pollock Theater, will be used by the Carsey-Wolf Center for Film Television and New Media,” he said. Pollock Theater will seat about 300 people.

Goleta Housing Plan Rejected by State

Much was made of the 55% inclusionary rule for afforadable housing, which Jack Hawxhurst championed in both creatng Goleta's General Plan but also in his erstwhile campaign for reelection. According to a Martha Sadler article at The Independent, the State did not specifically reject the rule but they also had the benefit of knowing it will likely be changed by April 16th when the new council votes on general plan amendments. Let's hope the rule stays within the more reasonable 25-30% as the opposing candidates promised during the election and no less. Hawxhurst dreamed big but not realistic -- Goleta needs a high but attainable goal and my vote is for 30%.