They liked it.
Members of the Santa Barbara Architectural Board of Review gave mostly positive feedback to the developers of a proposed housing project at the site of Tri-County Produce on the Eastside.
The developers, Austin Herlihy and Chris Parker, revised a much larger plan to build 99 units and shrink the Tri-County Produce Market with a plan to build 53 apartments and maintain the market as it is.
“I am just thrilled you saved the iconic mass and storefront of the iconic produce company,” board member Richard Six said. “It’s very smart.”
The proposal, for 335 S. Milpas St., would feature the housing on a separate lot behind the existing Tri-County Produce site. It would include 10 studios, 18 one-bedroom units and 25 two-bedroom units in a four-story building.
Some members of the public spoke at the meeting and raised concerns about increased traffic in the area, along with a lack of parking. However, members of the ABR are not allowed to talk about parking or traffic congestion and must focus on the design of the actual building.
Some members of the ABR suggested that the project could be altered to make it less “boxy” and vary the roof styles.
Board member Dennis Whelan also suggested reducing some of the boxiness of the design and making the inner part of the development more compatible with the nearby Calle Puerta Vallarta Street.
“I could live with the end blocks on the building if the middle were more reduced in character, in size, bulk and scale, to meet more of the neighborhood,” Whelan said.
He also suggested breaking the “linearity” of the balconies.
Board member Lauren Anderson praised the curve corner of one of the buildings, and asked that the front of the buildings have more articulation and variation to increase activation with the street.
Jarrett Gorin of Vanguard Planning, the planner for the project, said the development team scaled back the project to respond to neighborhood concerns about taking up most of the block.
“We really just took a fresh look at how we were doing things out here,” Gorin said. “We decided there was really a significant value in keeping the Tri-County structure in the front half of the site intact and enhancing that structure.”
The new plan would allow Tri-County Produce to stay open for most of the duration of the construction.
“The gap in their business is going to be substantially reduced,” Gorin said.
He also expressed a disagreement with city staff over a requirement that a driveway entrance that exists from Milpas Street onto the site be eliminated. Gorin said the team is talking with legal staff, and if they can’t reach an agreement to keep the entrance, the two sides would be at an impasse.
“We are going to have to ask the city decision-makers what their priority is in their policies, whether it is housing or driveway entrances and exits,” Gorin said.