A golf course. A parking lot. A farm.
These are just some of the non-residential properties where developers want to build housing in Santa Barbara County.
The state sets housing goals and the county has to identify enough land to theoretically build those units in its Housing Element update.
The county Board of Supervisors will rezone some commercial and agricultural lands into residential for even more options – and a lot of property owners are interested in that.
The county is holding a workshop on potential rezone sites at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Planning Commission Hearing Room at 105 E. Anacapa St. in Santa Barbara.
Property owners and project agents will present their development proposals there, for South County projects, and at the Betteravia Government Center, at 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, for North County projects.
The supervisors won’t take any action during Tuesday’s workshop; there will be a series of hearings in the next few months, and then they’ll decide which properties to rezone.
Members of the public can watch the meeting in person, on local cable Channel 20, on the county’s CSBTV website or through YouTube.
The county plans opening remarks from Planning & Development staff, developer presentations, and a break to review projects in each building’s lobby. Then the supervisors can ask questions and there will be public comment.
Housing Element Updates List of Potential Rezones
The county has 36 potential rezone sites on its list: 18 in the North County and 18 on the South Coast, for 660 acres of land total.
Most of them are privately owned, and the county is only considering rezoning properties whose owners are on board.
As Noozhawk previously reported, two of the most contested sites are the Glen Annie Golf Club near Dos Pueblos High School, and the San Marcos Growers sites on Hollister Avenue west of Turnpike Road.
The city of Goleta sent an angry letter to the county about so much potential impact in its community, and asked the supervisors to only consider agricultural lands as a last resort.
The county added more non-agricultural potential rezone sites to its Housing Element Update after that.
The interactive map of potential rezone properties is online here.
The adopted Housing Element Update is online here.
