The Wheel Deal: Is the Future of State Street Car-Free, Flat, and Flexible?

Councilmember Kristen Sneddon was giddy with excitement as she gathered the dozens of Post-It notes she had scrawled on during the staff presentation of the latest update on the State Street Master Plan. Her smile gave a clue into how she felt about the plans, which brought together more than three years’ worth of city meetings and public outreach in an attempt to solve the riddle of the future of State Street.

City staff — in a lofty effort orchestrated by City Administrator Kelly McAdoo, Community Development Director Eli Isaacson, State Street Master Planner Tess Harris, and Downtown Team Manager Sarah Clark — had combined and harmonized the input of 17 State Street Advisory Committee members, hundreds of community members, and countless hours of public outreach.

“Ms. McAdoo, we’ve been waiting for you,” Councilmember Sneddon said to the new city administrator. “You opened the gate for all of the ideas and creativity that have been wanting to flow through for years, and you opened it up, you let the think tank think, you let people share ideas, and you brought it to council so we can move things forward.”

McAdoo was thrown into the planning effort late in the game after starting her new position in late May. Despite coming into a logjam planning effort — highlighted by intense debates over allowing cars back on the eight blocks of State Street blocked off to traffic in what was meant to be a temporary response to the pandemic — she was determined to work with staff to finally narrow down the plans for both the short term and long term.

As usual, Tuesday’s discussion over the future of State Street took up several hours of public comment and back-and-forth over the framework for pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle traffic in the core of downtown Santa Barbara. The plan going forward, as supported by a majority of the council, is to keep the city’s main street car-free, flat, and flexible from Haley Street up to Victoria Street.

The “Grand Paseo” framework, as city staff have taken to calling it in favor of “promenade,” was presented by the team of planners, creatives, and architects, who rendered visuals with watercolors and AI to give a peek into what the master plan may look like.

McAdoo said it was an attempt to align the future vision of the long-range Master Plan — which wouldn’t be fully fleshed out for a few years — with the short-term action plan of what’s happening with State Street in the next 12 months.

The planning team described the long-range plans as a pedestrian-friendly core that would focus on existing paseos to connect areas and create new plaza-like spaces to revitalize State Street into a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood. Essentially, from the 500 block to the 1200 block, the designs would revolve around a “curb-less, flat, and flexible” streetscape across all 80 feet of the street.

Two-way traffic would be allowed on the 400 and 1300 blocks, which would serve as the primary gateways to the downtown core, with the architects envisioning archways that could pay homage to the city’s traditional Mediterranean design language. 

On either side of State Street, a row of palm trees that could be seen from afar would serve as a landmark drawing people toward downtown. Raised crosswalks and differently colored tile patterns would help mark changes for cars, bikes, and pedestrians. One watercolor visual — a bird’s-eye view of downtown painted by artist Jon Messer and commissioned by Friends of State Street as a donation to the city — shows the potential for dense infill development at Paseo Nuevo and several city parking lots.

The final cost, which could end up being more than any city project to date, will take innovative funding methods. McAdoo’s first suggestion was an “Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District,” which could use the expected growth in property values as a way to fund the improvements themselves.

In the meantime, planners are suggesting short-term solutions that could help set the stage for the eventual Master Plan. These include tackling the problem of bikes, specifically e-bikes, through the formation of an “e-bike safety working group” and stronger enforcement to reduce speeds. 

City staff also suggested rethinking outdoor dining, bringing more public seating, allowing a return for more pedicabs, and even trying out a new golf cart transport to move people from parking lots to State Street.

Out of the dozens of community members who gave public comment, the majority were in support of a pedestrian-and-bike-friendly downtown, reflecting the growing acceptance of a car-free plan for State Street.

The primary debate for councilmembers was whether the street should be closed only in the main core or whether to extend the curb-less design through the eight entire blocks.

Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez and Mayor Randy Rowse were the most vocal in their opposition to keeping the streets closed to cars. Gutierrez even proposed a motion to open the street from Canon Perdido up, saying that there were a lot of car-loving people in the city that were not represented in public comment or emails to council. “The room is not a representation of the entire city,” she said.

Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez, on the other hand, who said he spoke with a majority of business owners and employees and knocked on hundreds of doors, was adamant that “overwhelmingly everyone wants it closed.”

“They don’t want one more inch to be opened to cars,” he said. “Not one. So, I’m going to warn my colleagues up here to not make these broad assumptions without having facts to back it up.”

Mayor Rowse, who also said he would support reopening the street, shared his frustration with the backward process that landed the city in this predicament in the first place. “It wasn’t planned; it was declared,” Rowse said of the State Street closure. “Right now, we’re sitting on a failed street.”

While there was no vote taken, with a majority of the council in favor of the curb-less, flexible design, the city planning staff will now take the direction and create a draft plan, which is expected to be released to the public in the next six months, when the real work will begin.