Residents populating Goleta’s council chambers on Tuesday night heard the planning director, the councilmembers, and the mayor emphasize that the Housing Element cake ain’t baked until it’s pulled out of the oven, or in this case, that rezoned parcels do not turn into building projects until the developer submits an application for permits — which will occur at a later date with opportunities for the public to make their case. Nonetheless, many stayed through the five-hour meeting to make it clear that rezoned parcels at Kenwood Village, Colusa Avenue, and Dara Road would not become high-density apartments without a fight.
Traffic congestion, safety, neighborhood compatibility, and parking were all raised as significant issues at each location. To the question of the density of apartments being zoned amid single-family homes, Planning Director Peter Imhof explained that the state used density as a proxy for lower-income units; the city must hold 1,837 more homes by 2031, approximately 1,000 of which must be very-low- or low-income. Imhof then described what the city anticipated would actually occur over the eight-year lifetime of this cycle’s Housing Element.
“The city doesn’t build the housing, but we do have to show the state that we are on pace at all levels of affordability,” Imhof said. “The state doesn’t care where the units are delivered,” he said, in an attempt to reassure the audience. “The Yardi project will provide a whole bunch of other housing at affordable levels. We can report that; we can count that.”
Yardi Systems is an international software company with a 100,000-square-foot headquarters on Fairview Avenue and a workforce that has largely worked remotely since the pandemic. Yardi proposes converting the building into 374 apartments — 60 below-market and 25 moderate-income — as well as a childcare center and an area of green space. A member of the Yardi family already succeeded doing the impossible in downtown Santa Barbara, where Jason Yardi completed 14 below-market, workforce studios at the former Sur La Table on State Street in a record 10 months.
A couple of the attendees on Tuesday spoke to the great need for housing and urged the city forward. The Housing Element, the programmatic environmental review in the General Plan, and the rezoning of 11 properties were adopted by unanimous vote. The document now goes to the state Housing and Community Development department, with the deadline for final compliance and rezoning February 15, 2024.
A parallel vote at the county was noted on Tuesday, when the supervisors approved the county’s Housing Element — 5,664 units required, more than 4,000 of them in South County — with an extended list of parcels up for possible rezoning. On that list has been Glen Annie Golf Club, but the unit count was reduced from 1,500 to 1,000 after additional site constraints were considered, said County Planning Director Lisa Plowman. The county is accepting comments on the potential rezones at https://sbco.abalancingact.com/south-coast.