A lot of development and some big projects are being proposed in Santa Barbara. The community is integral to the success of developments — large and small — and must be informed and included as is a “best architect’s best practice.”
As longtime Santa Barbara residents and architects, we understand how difficult and complex development is. We understand the effort and time to include the community out of respect and for the essential input that improves a project.
For this important community education and collaborative effort, we express appreciation to the many Santa Barbara owners, developers and architects who embrace these principles as best practice in all their work.
This is a basic principle of design excellence. The local owner/developer and architect team for the mixed-use housing development called The Neighborhood @ State and Hope that will replace the Macy’s building at La Cumbre Plaza and other mall structures deserves recognition.
The La Cumbre Plaza area has been designated for housing at this density for years.
The local team of Matthew Taylor, MPC Santa Barbara LLC (owner/developer) and the Cearnal Collective (architects) are well known and highly regarded, for a good reason. This team has been fully inclusive and transparent about the intent and details of the project since the beginning.
In January 2024, a two-hour open house was held at the mall welcoming the community to meet the team, see the preliminary plans, ask questions and make comments.
Recently, a large billboard was posted at the site that includes design images, description and contact information.
At 3 p.m. Nov. 9, the project will be publicly presented and reviewed by the Architectural Board of Review, at the 630 Garden St. hearing room. The meeting is open to the community and available online.
Sadly, and in stark contrast, two massive multistory apartment buildings have been proposed at 1609-1615 Grand Ave. overlooking the city from up on the Riviera and at 505 E. Los Olivos St. next to the historic Santa Barbara Mission.
To date, there has been no public outreach for the projects.
These two proposals and have been “moving through” city planning and development since 2024, in obscurity.
Both areas are unique and neither has ever been identified as appropriate for the density proposed.
The proposals were enabled by the work of the development team and submitted during a “moment” of opportunity for California’s builder’s remedy law to be used when the City of Santa Barbara was awaiting final state adoption of its housing element.
The builder’s remedy law allows local zoning and public review to be bypassed. For roughly three years, the plans for these two projects have not been shared with the community while the people behind them have remained silent.
The proposals can only be viewed by scheduling an appointment with city planners to view on a computer screen. No photographs or copies are allowed to be taken, and the owner/developer and architect team have not given permission for the plans to be published.
The old saying “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should” comes to mind.
Why have the owner/developer and the architect team chosen this path of exclusion and nontransparency on such large-scale proposed development in such sensitive locations that leave the community to worry and speculate?
This leaves us to be ever more appreciative to the many truly excellent architects and developers in Santa Barbara, and to take this moment to recognize the Cearnal Collective as the architects and the Taylors as the owners and developers of The Neighborhood @ State and Hope for the process they have chosen to inform and include the community in the development of this large project.
