More information is needed about Ganna Walska Lotusland’s plans to reconfigure its front gate on Cold Springs Road to ensure its new roundabout will fit properly, the Montecito Board of Architectural Review said Thursday.
Board members requested the team behind the 37-acre botanical garden’s sweeping renovations come back with a 3-D rendering of the 60-foot-diameter roundabout, stating they have concerns about how the flow will handle larger cars, such as SUVs.
Board Chair Thiep Cung said he’d like to see a larger roundabout — possibly up to 70 to 80 feet in diameter — and called the current roundabout design “tight.” (Montecito’s Olive Mill Road roundabout, for comparison, is roughly 150 feet in diameter, he said.)
Board member Stacey Isaac said she thinks the main entrance plans generally work as presented, but she wants to see that 3-D rendering to ensure the flow will work.
“You are an institution, but you are an institution within a neighborhood,” she said. “Trying to keep that balance, I think that’s really important too because people living across the street … they have to see it every day.”
The board this week also reviewed other project aspects: a staff office building, horticulture complex, restrooms, a greenhouse, orchard pavilion and workforce housing units.
The staff housing includes six courtyard-style cottages, with the smallest around 400 square feet, and the others between 730 and 750 square feet. Each would have small, private patios.
The board asked if the Lotusland team could potentially include additional — and possibly larger — staff housing.
Isaac asked if it was “reasonable” for staff housing to be as small as 400 square feet, and said microunits of housing don’t typically accommodate long-term living.
She also encouraged the applicant team to loosen up the layout of the workforce housing section.
Lotusland’s renovation plans will return at least once more to the Montecito Board of Architectural Review before heading to the Montecito Planning Commission.
If approved, the renovations would be completed over several years as funds are raised for the projects, Lotusland representatives said earlier this year.
