The Carpinteria City Council last week sent a letter to the Housing Authority of Santa Barbara County objecting to a large family housing site on the north end of Bailard Avenue, just outside of the city’s limits.

“The city has a strong history of supporting new and protecting existing residential development that is affordable by design and/or includes units with affordability restrictions,” the letter said. “However, after multiple meetings with Housing Authority staff and its private development partner where city concerns were shared, and despite good faith efforts by all involved, we have concluded that the city can no longer lend its support to exploring multi-family housing at the Bailard site based on the project concept.” 

The project proposes 173 units of family housing on a seven-acre property at 1101 and 1103 Bailard Ave., adjacent to the city’s northern boundary, but technically located in the unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County.

The property is currently used for open-field agriculture, and has a few single-family homes, according to Dave Durflinger, Carpinteria city manager.

The site used to be owned by Carpinteria Unified School District, but was designated as surplus a few years ago and put up for sale, Durflinger said. 

“In the situation where a public agency determines a property is surplus and puts it up for sale, it must first make it available to other public agencies for priority uses that the state has determined,” he explained, adding that one of those uses is housing.

The city of Carpinteria and the Housing Authority both looked at the space and figured it was worth exploring, knowing that it is in the coastal zone where it’s “very difficult to find larger sites” for multi-family housing, Durflinger said.

However, the city met with the Housing Authority and concluded that there were a number of issues with the project, including the scale and scope of development and density. 

The Bailard site is currently designated as rural residential, which allows one residence for every three acres. However, the project design would require a density of 25 residences per acre, higher than any density allowed in Carpinteria, according to the letter.

“At the right location, we think a multi-family housing project developed by the Housing Authority certainly has a place,” Durflinger said, adding that the city felt that the proposed project site was not the place.

The city believes that the Housing Authority has not given “serious consideration of the important issues raised by the city,” the letter said.

Many public commenters echoed that sentiment and supported the council’s letter asking the Housing Authority to abandon the project, and one speaker said that there was a petition with over 2,000 signatures opposing the project.

The letter was sent to the Housing Authority’s board of commissioners as well as the county Board of Supervisors.

While the development application as of last week had not yet been submitted to the county by the Housing Authority, Durflinger said he understood that it would be shortly, and there was an urgency to submit the city’s opposition.

— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.