Residents filtered into the Carpinteria Community Church on Thursday night for the community’s first in-person look at plans for a 191-unit housing development proposed for a bluffs parcel. 

Next door at the Carpinteria Woman’s Club was a gathering organized by Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs, a decades-old advocacy group that is strongly opposed to building housing on the bluffs.

Community members traveled between the two buildings, many sporting green “Carp’s Got SOUL (Sacred Open Undeveloped Land)” T-shirts and “NO!” stickers. 

Developers organized the open house to give the community a chance to give feedback on The Farm housing project. 

Representing the development team, media relations manager Brian Lewis said the open house was an educational opportunity. 

“We’ve seen a lot of people take an interest in the property,” he said. 

The meeting included informational tables about the project and places for community members to submit comments. 

The 191-unit development is proposed for 5669 and 5885 Carpinteria Ave., a 27-acre parcel near Carpinteria City Hall that is partially occupied by a golf driving range and a farm. 

Under the plans, the residential development would remain on the mountainside of the railroad tracks that split the property. On the oceanside of the tracks is the Harbor Seal Rookery overlook, which community members and visitors use to view the seals on the beach below. 

Ninety-four units would be townhomes and 97 would be single-family homes, all between 26 feet and 30 feet tall. 

The single-family homes would have five bedrooms, while townhomes would be three-bedroom units. 

Affordable Housing Units

Twenty percent — 39 units — would be designated for income-restricted housing under the management of People’s Self-Help Housing, a Central Coast nonprofit organization. 

The project qualifies as a builder’s remedy project. Because it was submitted before the State of California certified the city’s 2023-31 Housing Element, the project is allowed to bypass certain local zoning standards as long as it offers a certain percentage of income-restricted housing. 

PSHH President/CEO Ken Trigueiro told Noozhawk that his team was taking input from the community about homeownership versus renting out the income-restricted units.

All of the market-rate units will be put up for sale, per the development team.

“Our job as a community-based nonprofit is to just take this all in and see who tells us what the priority is,” Trigueiro said. 

He said it isn’t yet known whether the income-restricted units will be physically separate or mixed in with the market-rate ones. 

Trigueiro said the nonprofit organization follows federal housing laws, but with the city’s “blessing and legal opinion, we can offer our local preference for people who already work or are already living here,” he said.

There are three other People’s Self-Help Housing developments spread throughout Carpinteria: Dahlia Court, Casas de las Flores and Chapel Court. 

Project Feedback

Many open house attendees, however, shared their strong opposition to the project, both with members of the development team and with Noozhawk. 

Jaclyn Kucharski, a Carpinteria resident who has lived in the area for six years, called the bluffs “our sacred space.” 

The development is “paving paradise,” she said. “I went for a bike ride last night and I wanted to cry.” 

Resident Bart Dickens was also against the development.

He said Carpinteria has a “beautiful coastal bluff area, and there are not many of those left.” 

Arturo Tello, a board member and former president of the Citizens of the Carpinteria Bluffs, said he would like to see the community raise enough money to buy the property and prevent any development. 

The Citizens was formed in the 1990s by environmental advocates who successfully fought the development of nearby bluffs parcels by purchasing them.

“The reality is all the people that are here (at the open house) are people who do not want the development,” Tello said. 

A contract to hire a consultant to prepare the project’s environmental review documents is on Monday night’s Carpinteria City Council meeting. 

After the environmental review is complete, the project still must go through regular city review board processes.

Per state law, it can be heard at a maximum of five public hearings, such as at an Architectural Review Board or Planning Commission meeting.

City Manager Michael Ramirez said the city “always encourages project developers to engage with the community when proposing a project.” 

“The interest in The Farm project open house, and seeing that engagement in action, is simply a reflection of what this space means to the community,” he added. 

Those 191 units would count toward Carpinteria’s 2023-31 required housing numbers. The state, citing an ongoing housing crisis, has told counties and cities that they must build housing. 

Carpinteria must plan for 901 units by 2031, under the city’s Housing Element approved by the state last year.

They have issued 73 building permits so far, city staff said at a meeting last month.

For the record: Any qualifying housing project under state law can now be heard at a maximum of five public hearings, not just builder’s remedy projects.

Noozhawk contributing writer Stella Mullin contributed reporting to this story.