The Santa Barbara County supervisors have approved an agreement with San Marcos Ranch developers to make 236 Goleta Valley apartments affordable for 55 years, which is a condition of approval for the project that includes more than 700 market-rate units to be built on a nearby parcel.
The county rezoned the San Marcos Growers property to allow housing, and developers plan to build 956 units: 720 market-rate units at 4960 Hollister Ave. and 236 affordable apartments at 125 S. San Marcos Road.
The affordable apartments received zoning approval in September and are under construction. When they’re finished, they’ll have a 55-year rental restrictive covenant so units are affordable to low-income and extremely-low-income households.
Santa Barbara County leaders want 90-year affordability covenants for some new housing projects. This one has a state tax credit regulatory agreement, and its financing stipulates a 55-year affordability term, according to the Planning & Development Department.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an agreement to provide affordable housing and a rental restrictive covenant for the project, between the county and the owners of both parcels.
Housing programs specialist Andrew Kish said the recordation of the agreement and covenant is a condition of approval for the project. Kish also noted that the San Marcos Ranch market-rate parcel project is about two months away from receiving its building permits.
San Marcos Ranch is a collaboration of Presidio Capital Partners, the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara and The Pacific Companies.
The agreements approved Tuesday are between the county and the San Marcos Ranch Associates LP, the affordable parcel owner, and the market rate parcel owners: Brett Edward Hodges Irrevocable Trust, SWBRadford LLC, The Bradford 2023 Irrevocable Trust and San Marcos Holdings LLC.
Largest Low-Income Apartment Project So Far
The number of affordable apartments in the project is the largest number of low-income units for a single project in the county’s history, Andrew Fuller, a partner at Presidio Capital Partners, said at a Planning Commission hearing for San Marcos Ranch.
The developers have said the apartments should be ready for new tenants to move in by late 2027.
There are more large affordable housing projects in the county’s pipeline, including another agricultural property rezoned for development in the Goleta Valley.
The Caird family’s multifamily housing project on South Patterson has proposed about 300 lower-income units, which would be even more than the San Marcos Ranch project, Kish noted.