The new Target store is only the latest example of Santa Barbara’s parking problems. That project was approved with insufficient parking with the credulous expectation that the store’s popularity will decline post–grand opening. Jiggering the State/La Cumbre intersection light timings will not solve the problem of cars blocking the street, waiting to enter the lot. The intersection has always been busy; what could go wrong?
Just down State Street is a drive-through restaurant approved
without understanding mobile diners would create a similar line of vehicles
spilling out onto State Street predictably at mealtimes, congesting traffic for
other drivers and emergency vehicles. The restaurant chain undoubtedly knew its
drive-through's popularity (it’s their business to know, after all) would
overwhelm the site’s capacity and cause substantial overflow out of their
parking lot into the thoroughfare. They proceeded anyway, and city staff’s
permit standard was the sleepy burger joint previously in that space. Oh, look!
The new 72-unit Estancia housing development is right across the street; what
could go wrong?
Those are commercial examples of under-parking. Across town on
Milpas Street, a 76-unit modern apartment complex was recently approved after
appeal, although it, too, is under-parked. The city solution was to allow those
developers to create a quasi-private parking lot out of the short remnant of
East Ortega Street that has customarily been the student pedestrian access to
Santa Barbara Junior High School. Residential parking lot, students texting and
walking; what could go wrong?