Casa Dorinda in Montecito won’t have to undergo an environmental impact review, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors decided on Tuesday.
The board voted 5-0 after an approximately one-hour meeting, to allow Casa Dorinda’s renovation to move ahead without the review.
The Montecito Planning Commission voted 3-2 in December to make the project undergo the review, but Casa Dorinda appealed the decision.
“Casa Dorinda is pleased that this project is going to move forward,” said Steve Amerikaner, an attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which represented Casa Dorinda. “The passage of time makes any project more expensive and more difficult.”
Casa Dorinda, an upscale retirement community at 300 Hot Springs Road, wants to update its master plan to add new residential units, a new dining facility, an underground garage, reconfigure the trash-recycling-green waste area, reconfigure an existing driveway and bridge, and redesign the dedicated open space.
The project will also add 58 new parking spaces for a total of 435.
Much of opposition to the project came from preservationists who want to see the historic one-way bridge maintained. The project calls for the construction of a new, two-way bridge across Montecito Creek, with pedestrian access.
The new bridge would become the main entry and exit for residents and guests. A 5-foot-wide raised pedestrian path would be located on the south side of the bridge, allowing staff and residents to use it to access Hot Springs and Olive Mill and a nearby bus stop.
A 5,000-square-foot grill would provide alternative dining for residents, while adding more dining space, and a new independent-living area.
The county board agreed that what’s known as a mitigated negative declaration — a document that states there aren’t any impacts imposed by the project that can’t be mitigated — was enough, and an EIR is not needed.
“After studying the additional information in the letters from the Pearl Chase Society and the project historians that were submitted since the last Montecito Planning Commission hearing, I did not believe that the standard for requiring an EIR on the historic resources issue could be met, so I voted to grant Casa Dorinda’s appeal,” First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal said.
“I am hopeful that the alternatives analysis that our board directed staff to prepare regarding options for access to the property will be helpful to the Montecito Planning Commission in working with Casa Dorinda to consider the overall project.”
No one spoke in opposition to proposal at Tuesday’s county meeting.
Montecito Planning Commission Chairman Michael Phillips said he is glad the county let the project move forward without a full EIR.
“We need the assurances of ingress-egress,” Phillips said. “We need a bridge that works.”
Phillips said that he recognizes the historic value of the current bridge, but that the new one would “look remarkably like it.”
The project is likely to return to Montecito Planning Commission around March of this year.
“We will take another swing at it and end up with something good for Montecito,” Phillips said.
The hallmark of the project will be the expansion of the personal care and memory care unit.
“Casa Dorinda needs to be in a position to meet people’s needs,” Amerikaner said.
— 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.
