The development of housing that provides for multiple tiers of income has long been a priority for the City of Santa Barbara. In keeping with this policy, the City of Santa Barbara applied for a grant to develop a “Specific Plan” for the site currently known as La Cumbre Plaza . Zoning for nearly 2,000 residential units was included a number of years ago in our General Plan Update, the largest and most ambitious housing effort in our history. Because of the “transformative” nature of a project of this scale, our grant proposal was recently scored in the top tier of all grant applications. The committee tasked with awarding these grants deemed that this project was appropriate and would truly provide significant housing for our community.
Despite this grant being recommended through normal procedures, it was denied at a meeting of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. SBCAG’s Chairperson, Das Williams, stated that the grant committee had erred and that the project “didn’t qualify.” At a preliminary hearing the previous day, Chair Williams had demanded that Santa Barbara City planning staff return with “proof” that a Specific Plan would not delay the project. The next day he chastised planning staff for not having brought any legal counsel, exhibits, or evidence that it wouldn’t result in delay. This demand of “proof” about a complex planning procedure was unusual and demanded of no other applicant on the grant award list.
Ultimately, the SBCAG board never voted on whether to fund the Specific Plan, as it was taken off the table and the money redistributed to the other grantees. The vote on the entire grant list, the only vote taken, was 10-1 and cannot truly be said to reflect the rejection of the city’s grant award.