The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday inched toward passing a moratorium on new hotels, but nothing is certain.
The council will return on June 28 to vote on the potential ordinance.
The vote was 5-2, with council members Alejandra Gutierrez and Randy Rowse objecting.
“The housing crisis in our community is and has been hugely impactful to the quality of life for so many of us,” said Councilwoman Meagan Harmon. “We’ve got to address it as creatively and urgently as possible.”
City officials believe that no new hotels should be approved until a new housing element is adopted. The housing element, which will be updated next year, sets housing goals for the city through 2031.
The proposed ordinance would prohibit many pending applications for new or expanded hotel developments from proceeding unless the project application has been deemed complete.
About 21 hotel development projects — representing nearly 800 hotel rooms — in the pipeline would not be subject to the interim urgency ordinance.
Staff suggested that the city should be encouraging developers to building housing instead of hotels.
But Councilman Mike Jordan said he’s not convinced that stopping hotel development would help the housing crisis.
The consequences of taking such an act are unclear, he said.
“This notion that there’s a clear nexus between hotel development, hotel workers and low-income housing need is a little hard to understand when you look at California’s EDD labor market,” Jordan said.
He said there are hiring shortages in retail and agriculture across the county, but the city isn’t talking about stalling those industries.
He said everyone wants more housing, but no one wants to talk about height limits or density or size, bulk and scale, or seriously reforming the city’s processes to get more housing.
“I am not willing to target one particular industry that I think has a key economic and community benefit to our city, saying that will resolve our housing shortcomings.
Jordan said he just wants the proposal to “go away.”
“I don’t really see that there’s a bang for the buck of what we are trying to do,” Jordan said.
Jordan ended up supporting the motion by Councilman Eric Friedman, but the real debate over the proposal won’t happen until June 28.
Rowse opposed the proposal and said halting hotel development won’t help the housing problem.
“I think we’re going about this the wrong way,” Rowse said. “I think you need to provide incentives, and you’ve got to take down a few hurdles if you want to get to where you want to go.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
