Santa Barbara City Council Says New Plans for State Street ‘Too Complicated’ 

Since the pandemic, downtown Santa Barbara’s main drag, State Street, has suffered from an identity crisis. It’s been closed to traffic, turned into a pedestrian-bicyclist promenade with outdoor dining, and had its bike lanes painted, then buffed, then repainted again. Most recently, a one-block section was reopened to one-way vehicle traffic to allow for drop-offs during events at The Granada Theatre.

They are temporary solutions while the city chips away at the permanent “State Street Master Plan,” but they have been far from perfect, and on Tuesday, City Council discussed the interim operations on State Street, including a proposal to reconfigure the 1300 block of State Street — home to the Arlington Theatre — to allow two-way traffic for vehicles and bikes along with 26 angled parking spaces.

The last time the city council discussed State Street on December 5, 2023, councilmembers gave direction to the city administrator’s office to look at ways to rethink the 00 block of West Victoria and the 1300 block of State Street. Since the two blocks were covered by the city’s State Street Promenade Ordinance, the city administrator had the direct authority to implement a revised roadway configuration at her own discretion. On December 18, just before retiring, former City Administrator Rebecca Bjork approved the new configurations, which were first brought before the council on Tuesday.

Interim City Administrator Sarah Knecht worked alongside Bjork, the city engineer, traffic engineer, fire marshal, and assistant chief of police to find a solution that would solve the conflicts between cyclists and vehicles backing out of parking spaces. Eventually, they settled on a two-way protected bike lane along the curb of the 1300 block with a passenger drop-off in front of the Arlington Theatre, 26 angled parking spaces, and two-way vehicle traffic. The plan would have forced restaurants Opal and Carlito’s to close their outdoor dining facilities.

The council supported the plan to reopen Victoria Street, but councilmembers Meagan Harmon and Kristen Sneddon both thought the plan for the 1300 block was far too complex to be approved without looking at other options.

“I think this plan is overly complicated,” Sneddon said. “It sort of makes the center of the street a parking lot.”

Harmon said she saw the “good intent” behind the proposal, but questioned why the city administrator’s proposal opted for angled parking when parallel parking seemed much simpler and would still provide 23 spaces. When city staff and Police Chief Kelly Gordon explained that it was considered the safest option to separate bike and vehicle traffic, Harmon was still not satisfied.

“I don’t see how it’s safer,” she said. “It just doesn’t look that way to me.”

The issue became more complicated when city staff reminded the councilmembers that, because of how the city code was written, the council could provide comments and recommendations, but the city administrator had final discretion to move forward or return with more options.

“I do hope that there is enough input here that something else could be considered, even if it was reverting the street to its previous configuration,” Sneddon said. “I hope it would come back to us before it was implemented.”

Officially, the council directed the city administrator to “propose alternative vehicular configurations” on the 1300 block of State Street that would solve traffic conflicts while allowing businesses to reapply for outdoor dining facilities that comply with current guidelines. The motion was approved 4-2, with councilmember Eric Friedman and Alejandra Gutierrez opposed.

City Council also discussed other recently implemented and proposed pilot programs for State Street. The one-way traffic experiment near the Granada has hit a few bumps in the road, with city staff showing a photo of the 1200 block on a busy night when at least seven passenger buses and vans were parked illegally on the block — with some blocking vehicle lane and some that had crossed over into the closed portion of the street to park in the bike lane.

Plans for a micro-transit shuttle along State Street have also fizzled, although the city is still pursuing its goal to have requests for proposals ready by this year. Similar programs cost upward of $500,000 in cities like San Diego and Pacific Beach, and the council has expressed concerns about funding a temporary service.