It was a very weird end to a very long night. After nearly six hours of detailed, inspired, exhausting, and mostly high-minded public policy debate over a brand- new citywide Bicycle Master Plan, the Santa Barbara City Council appeared to bestow its blessing — by a 5-2 vote — on not just the plan itself but also on the intensely controversial proposal to remove up to 100 on-street parking spaces from a four-block stretch of Micheltorena Street.
This street space would be used to create green-painted bike lanes running along both sides of Micheltorena, creating what many bicycle advocates called a crucial “spine” for the city’s bike infrastructure system. But immediately after all seven councilmembers outlined their positions, City Attorney Ariel Calonne stepped up and tossed them a serious legal curveball.
At the 11th hour, Calonne explained he needed more time to determine whether the proposed Bicycle Master Plan was, in fact, exempt — as he had asserted the previous week — from the strictures of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) or whether additional environmental review was necessary. Calonne said he needed to review “whether what the city has done is appropriate,” explaining, “Additional concerns were raised yesterday and today that we have to look at.”