The City of Santa Barbara is developing an incentive program to encourage smaller unit sizes and smaller residential buildings as part of its implementation of General Plan updates, and on Tuesday the City Council approved the timeline that aims to have modified zoning ordinances adopted by July 2013.
The program’s components will be developed and reviewed by the City Council, the Planning Commission, the Architectural Board of Review and the Historic Landmarks Commission.
It focuses on the areas of downtown, the Milpas Street corridor, La Cumbre/Five Points and the Haley/Cota corridor where the most units per acre can be built, with an emphasis on rental, employer and co-op housing, according to principal planner John Ledbetter.
The program will end after eight years or 250 units have been developed.
In addition to changing rules to include only one parking spot per unit, Councilman Bendy White said he wants the program to encourage underground parking and more residential buildings in commercial districts.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.








