Historic preservation was the focus of Wednesday’s mayoral candidate forum, hosted by the Santa Barbara Conservancy and the Citizens Planning Association.
All five Santa Barbara candidates — Steve Cushman, Dale Francisco, Isaac Garrett, Bob Hansen and Helene Schneider — were in attendance, and agreed that Santa Barbara needs to preserve its history and that city government should play a role in making sure that happens.
“We are losing much of what the city of Santa Barbara has to offer,” Garrett said.
Among their plans were two core issues: preserving all types of history — from events to buildings to archives — and creating clearer parameters for new developments. Changing zoning rules — perhaps including a buffer around historical buildings, Francisco suggested — and being even more stringent on issues such as open space and setbacks could avoid more buildings that many people consider out of place, the candidates said.
“There are probably some rules in place that lead to these kinds of buildings (that need to change),” Schneider said.
Cushman, president of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce, urged a combination of old and new to keep the city desirable.
“If we don’t allow change to occur, it’s just gonna be a city of old people dying,” he said.
Cushman said he has his eyes on the bottom line, too. The city’s challenge to preservation is success, he said. With so much demand to live in the area, smart growth would help the downtown area stay vital and diverse for residents, but preservation is important to keep tourism flourishing.
“We don’t want to kill our golden goose,” he said.
Francisco said preservation affects the kind of community Santa Barbara wants to be. “The topic too often is off the map,” he said. The high expense of preservation combined with the pressure to develop can make it difficult, he said.
However, preservation could be helped by giving design and planning review boards more of a backbone and changing zoning if necessary, he said. “We need to preserve the best from our past,” Francisco said.
The purpose of the forum was to discuss historical preservation, but Garrett said he sees all of the issues as interconnected. The city needs to resolve gang issues, balance its budget and remain clean and safe so residents and visitors can enjoy the things that are being preserved, he said.
He said he’s wary of the city’s role in financially supporting historic-preservation projects, and said there’s a need to list the criteria that make something “historic.”
Hansen, whose closing began with a few lines from John Lennon’s “Imagine,” is running on the platform of housing and related the questions to that topic. A longtime advocate for the homeless population, he said the city and county should pursue new ideas and solutions instead of attempting to “police them out.”
He was in agreement with other candidates that new developments should have more than height considered — especially setbacks. Even a 40-foot building right up at the sidewalk wouldn’t be in the Santa Barbara style, he said.
Another reason for historic preservation is the distinction it gives the city.
Santa Barbara is “not just any other beach town,” Schneider said. The high price of land and lack of open space are challenges to preservation, she said.
She said she supports requiring neighborhood compatibility for new developments and financial assistance to the preservation of old ones.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, both she and Francisco voted for the new Mills Act ordinance, which will give financial incentives to property owners of historic buildings.
Wednesday’s forum, which drew about 50 people, was held in the Faulkner Gallery of the downtown branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com.
