The Cota Street Parking lot, home to Santa Barbara’s Saturday Farmers Market for more than 20 years, is the best site for the city’s new police station, members of the city’s Planning Commission recommended on Thursday afternoon. “We thought the Cota Street lot was the best site,” said Planning Commissioner Sheila Lodge, who said she’s been a regular at the Farmers Market since the day it started. “We also stressed the absolute importance of the city doing everything it could possibly do to assure the success of the market wherever it moves.” Lodge described the current police station as “a disaster waiting to happen,” noting that studies showing the need for a new station date back to the days when she was mayor back in the 1980s.
The police station was built in 1959 to accommodate 85 people. The department has since expanded to 220. Its current address on East Figueroa is not big enough, nor is the number of parking spaces, said Brad Hess, the city’s project planner assigned to get the new station house located and approved.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation is hardly the last word in what could likely become a prolonged civic discussion, and Thursday's was only a recommendation, not the deciding vote. But only one person representing himself as a Famers Market vendor spoke on Thursday, and he expressed support for the proposal.