A new performing arts center is one step closer to bringing music to State Street in downtown Santa Barbara.

The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday designated the proposed Music Academy of the West project at 901 State St. as a community benefit project, allowing architects to add more square footage to the existing building. 

The designation comes just two weeks after the Historic Landmarks Commission held a conceptual review hearing on the project’s design. 

“Unanimously, there was excitement that the Music Academy would be coming downtown, and it was definitely perceived as a public benefit,” Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said on Tuesday. 

The project would include a new performance hall, private recording studio spaces, dressing rooms, practice rooms, teaching studios, a student lounge and a rooftop event space. 

Music Academy of the West is proposing construction of 2,995 square feet of new floor area and a height increase to 56 feet, exceeding the zoning height limit of 45 feet. 

Since the project doesn’t include housing, it had to be designated as a community benefit project to allow for the new construction.

Most of the new floor area would be contained within the existing building, except for an addition proposed at the back of the building to accommodate a new stairway and elevator tower, according to the city staff report.

A development can be considered a community benefit project if it’s meant to enhance the area’s standard of living or strengthen the local economy by offering new employment opportunities.

When the Historic Landmarks Commission reviewed the project on Dec. 3, commissioners were excited about the new addition to State Street, but they wanted to see an exterior that better embraced Santa Barbara’s Spanish-style architecture and complemented the adjacent Paseo Nuevo mall.

“I’m really excited about having the music facility in downtown Santa Barbara; it’s going to be fantastic,” Commissioner Ed Lenvik said. “But I want us to try and integrate what you’re doing into what we have downtown now, and what we have to respect from the standpoint of the El Pueblo Viejo district.”

Local architect Michael Holliday, who is working on the project, said the building is in desperate need of aesthetic improvements. He explained that the building would be re-plastered and re-painted, and all of the woodwork would be maintained.

The main change to the outside of the building facing State Street is that the upper right corner would be made taller to accommodate the stairway tower.

On the side of the building facing Canon Perdido Street, Holliday explained, they plan to remove the trellis and palm tree next to the building and fill it in with another stairway and elevator tower. 

As part of the design, the architects proposed a narrow vented window with an arch at the bottom on the Canon Perdido side, a choice the commissioners weren’t sold on. Commissioner Anthony Grumbine went as far as saying that it made his “soul cry.”

The project is expected to return to the city for preliminary design approval in January. 

For 78 years, the academy has been behind ironed gates in Montecito, but Shauna Quill, president and CEO of the Music Academy of the West, said they have a vision to be more a part of the community.

“To have a place where we can have performances, lectures, masterclasses, teaching, but also have costume shops in the basement and all the things, the recording studios, it allows us to also partner with arts organizations from throughout the county, and those phone calls are already starting,” Quill said. 

The academy acquired the building in June. Before that, it was home to a Forever 21 clothing store.