In the hope of creating a more neighborly feeling along Hollister Avenue in Old Town — as well as adding restaurant parklets and 25 more parking spaces — the City of Goleta is asking for a consultation on the new project with its citizens on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Goleta Community Center.
The city plans to ease into the changes with newly painted markings on Hollister that will:
- add back-in diagonal parking on the north side of the street
- add a center median for turning
- add designated bicycle lanes on both sides
- maintain parallel parking on the south side of the street
Known as a “striping project” because only painted lines will be used to mark the new street configurations — likely temporarily — the project is the last one remaining from the three proposed earlier this year. One included center-of-the-street parking, and one made the diagonal parking the traditional nose-in. The current striping proposal reflects the results from the city’s Complete Streets process in 2019.
By striping the center median for turns, it can also be used as temporary parking for emergency and delivery vehicles, explained city spokesperson Kelly Hoover. As well, 90-minute parking limits are being proposed for Hollister and on the immediate side streets to encourage parking turnover, she said.
An information blitz from the city has resulted in some early feedback, Hoover indicated: traffic impacts if Hollister goes from four to two lanes, whether traffic will go through the neighborhoods instead, when the Ekwill extension will be finished to provide an alternative to Hollister, and whether back-in parking was a good idea.
The city’s first back-in parking scheme — at the apartments on Magnolia — was an extraordinary success, Councilmember James Kyriaco said recently; that project added 17 new parking spaces. Along Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara, back-in parking at the volleyball courts on East Beach also seems to have caused few problems.
“Much of the success of the outreach will be determined by the participation at the community meeting,” Hoover said. A second workshop is currently set on October 27 at the City Council chambers on Cremona Drive, which will be a hybrid meeting both live and virtually.
For more information on the project, visit the city’s website here.
Correction: Goleta City Hall is on Cremona Drive, not Cortona Drive as this story originally stated.
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