Milpas Street in Santa Barbara is getting a makeover.

The city’s Parks & Recreation Commission is set to meet Wednesday to talk about adding lighting, extending curbs and widening sidewalks to help improve safety.

The project extends from Canon Perdido to Quinientos streets.

“Milpas Street has the second-highest number of pedestrian collisions in the city and is a designated Vision Zero Priority Corridor, aiming to eliminate severe injuries and deaths,” city project planner Michelle Bedard wrote in a memo to the commission. “While it handles vehicle traffic well, this project focuses on improving pedestrian safety and access.”

The project would include new curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalks, additional lighting, accessibility improvements, widened sidewalks at street corners and transit stops, leading pedestrian intervals at signalized intersections, and mast-arm-mounted rectangular rapid flashing beacons.

Three-foot-wide buffers would be added to the bike lanes between Cota and Canon Perdido streets, according to a city staff report, to improve cyclist safety, and additional
bicycle parking on Milpas Street would improve cyclist access.

Construction is expected to begin in 2027 in coordination with a pavement grind and overlay project, and sidewalk repairs from trees uplifting sidewalks along Milpas from Hutash to Anapamu streets.

The city also plans to remove 13 trees, including 13 laurel fig trees, for safety, accessibility and sight-line issues. About 37 locations have been identified for potential new street trees.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at Santa Barbara City Hall, 735 Anacapa St.