Seventeen electric car charging stations, covered bike parking and artificial turf are some of the new features going into the Village at Los Carneros housing project in Goleta, which will include drought-tolerant landscaping, according to a recent developer estimate.
One three-building plot of the 465-unit development went before the Goleta Design Review Board again last week, with some tweaked and added features receiving nearly unanimous approval from the board.
A sticking point of the project was worked into approval, with members asking the developer to at least entertain the possibility of using gray water in some fashion even though the city can’t require it to do so.
The development will be built on a vacant 40-plus-acre site located north and west of Los Carneros Road, just south of Highway 101, on property where businesses such as Allergan once were located.
The City Council approved the final map and design in February 2015, reiterating an initial go-ahead for the project in July 2014 that included allowing zoning and General Plan changes along with final environmental impact report approval.
Officials were forced to give the development a second look after the Design Review Board kicked the project back in late 2014 to improve water-wise landscaping and to complete architectural design plans.
The Village at Los Carneros is a reincarnation of a former development that was never built, even though it was approved by the City Council in February 2008. That iteration proposed just 275 units.
The development now includes a mix of single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes, town homes, condominium flats and apartments — about 70 of which will be reserved as affordable housing via Peoples’ Self-Help Housing.
The project will also feature a neighborhood park, a bike path, a private recreation center, swimming pools, open space and more, according to plans filed by CHA McKinley Goleta LLC and Los Carneros Business Park.
Members of the developer team, which must construct several public improvements along Los Carneros Road, presented what city staff called slight changes to preliminary approval for Lot 5’s three buildings and 74 units.
The list included adding charging locations to accommodate 25 percent of residents, a wider sidewalk to accommodate vehicle overhang, an added walkway behind the carports, covered bike parking (one spot for every two units), a modified recreation/pool area with more amenities (like a nearby garden arbor and picnic tables) and changing stucco unit deck railings to metal.
Most changes involved landscaping and adding more succulents to be well below the project’s water allotment.
Although members of the Design Review Board briefly discussed continuing approval until the applicant came up with a gray-water plan, staff and developers reminded the board that such a plan wasn’t required.
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.