Come 2011, residential customers north of Hollister Avenue in Goleta may see MarBorg Industries trucks picking up their trash instead of the Allied Waste trucks they see now.

The potential change stems from a decision by the Goleta City Council on Tuesday evening to begin sole-source negotiations with the neighborhood trash hauler that may result in MarBorg taking over Allied’s route.

Currently, Goleta has two trash haulers, whose territories are largely defined by Hollister Avenue. Those living north of Hollister get their trash picked up by Allied Waste, formerly BFI, and residents south of Hollister get MarBorg service. It’s a condition the city inherited from the county upon incorporation in 2002, and a condition that still exists in unincorporated areas around Goleta.

Contracts for both haulers were set to expire in 2011, but the county granted an eight-year extension to MarBorg some time ago to give the company a chance to recoup additional expenses incurred by the building of its downtown facility. MarBorg’s contract now expires in 2019.

The upcoming expiration of Allied’s contract presented an opportunity for the council to review whether it wanted to continue with two trash haulers in city limits. The same expiration is also something the county will be dealing with shortly, and according to city staff, there may be “economies of scale” to explore with MarBorg service, depending on the action the county decides to take.

The 3-2 decision to enter into sole-source negotiations was split over whether the city should head into negotiations with MarBorg without first accepting a formal bid from Allied, or getting more information about the community’s waste-hauling needs.

Both trash haulers made presentations to the council Tuesday evening, but overwhelming public support for MarBorg seems to have tipped the scale in its favor.

Nothing has been set in stone with MarBorg, and there is a possibility that the city may choose to negotiate with Allied. Any contract negotiated with either hauler regarding the portion south of Hollister would have an end date of 2019, to sync up with MarBorg’s current contract south of Hollister.

Concurrently, a customer survey will be performed to assess residents’ preferences for waste collection services.

The Goleta City Council on Tuesday evening also accepted a progress report on its General Plan, a report that is required to be sent to the state Office of Planning and Research and the Department of Housing and Community Development. Among the items outlined in the report were progress on the General Plan amendments, and efforts toward the plan’s housing element.

Some of the highlights of the report include a status of 209 housing units built in 2009, with housing built for 19 very-low-income households, 10 low-income household, 10 moderate-income households, and the balance being for above-moderate incomes. These units were spread out over Sumida Gardens, Fairview Gardens and the Bluffs at Sandpiper.

A change in the regional housing needs allocation number for Goleta resulted in the decrease of units set forth as a goal for this planning cycle. Currently, the city is required by the state to plan for 1,641 units. The city will have to balance this number against the 400 approved but unbuilt units and the pending request for about 1,000 units in its planning pipeline, as well as the 248 acres of undeveloped land in Goleta that represents the “tail end” of buildout in the city.

As far as the last cycle of General Plan amendments, which the city had been working on since about the beginning of 2007, the report indicated that all of the city-initiated ones had been complete, but five developer-initiated ones continue to be active. These include the Bacara Resort & Spa Completion Phase project, Jordano’s Master Plan project, the Westar Mixed-Use project, the Kenwood Village project and the Montecito Bank & Trust project.

Among the achievements in housing for 2009, the report includes the recent partnership between the city’s Redevelopment Agency and the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara to convert 54 units of low-income housing in Old Town and in western Goleta from public housing to partially private Section 8 housing. The RDA also has helped subsidize nine units in Old Town as well as assisted housing rehabilitation efforts in the area.

Among the things still pending include a South Kellogg industrial area compliance program, as projects undergo transitions in uses in that area, park and open space management plans for Lake Los Carneros park and Ellwood Mesa, and design for the San Jose Creek flood control and fish passage project.

Meanwhile, the city continues to monitor requirements for the relatively new greenhouse gas reduction standards, and has its eyes on a local creek and watershed management plan, as well as a neighborhood traffic management program.

— Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com.