A three-story housing project proposed for Goleta doesn’t fit in with its neighborhood, Design Review Board members and nearby residents said.
A 10-unit apartment building is planned for the vacant lot at 7020 Calle Real next to the One Stop Shop Market and Liquor store.
Story poles are at the project site, and the developers went to the Goleta Design Review Board on Tuesday for a conceptual review hearing. The board and neighbors expressed concerns about the lack of character in the design and the incompatibility with the neighborhood.
The project includes four two-bedroom units, three one-bedroom units, three studio units and a room for bicycle storage for 10 bikes. It also calls for 20 uncovered parking spaces, six of which would be for the liquor store, and a new driveway on Colusa Street. The liquor store would remain on the property.
The property is owned by Ed Abdullatif, and the architect is Wade Mously of MW Architecture Inc.
Mously said that legally they could have proposed a 19-unit project and exceeded the city’s height limits, but the owner wanted to minimize traffic impacts and fit in with the neighborhood.
Mary Bankoff, who lives on Colusa Street across from the project, said the proposal looks like a big white cube and deviates from the rest of the neighborhood, which is mostly one-story, ranch-style homes.
“The size is much greater than any of the single-family homes, and the modern design presented here does not match the classic style of the existing neighborhood,” Bankoff said. “This is an extremely bulky project for the size of this site.”
Her daughter, Amy Bankoff, also spoke out against the project, saying the height would be invasive to the neighbors, as the third-story balconies would look down into neighbors’ front yards.
She also was concerned about a lack of parking and energy efficient and environmentally friendly designs.
The project is in its early stages, so exact colors and materials haven’t been selected yet.
The city’s Design Review Board members expressed concern about how the trash receptable was on the opposite side of the liquor store, meaning residents would have to walk across the parking lot, past the liquor store, to throw away their trash.
Mously said they would be open to considering a closer trash enclosure.
The current design includes a 360-square-foot open space area for residents behind the trash enclosure, which the board said was inconvenient and they didn’t think residents would actually use the space.
Board member and architect Dennis Whelan said the project was missing some Goleta character. He also said there was no relationship in the design of the building with the existing liquor store and neighborhood.
“The biggest challenge of our 21st century is having a sense of place, and Goleta prides itself as having a distinct character. I didn’t see any of that in your examples; in fact, the examples to me look like they could be anywhere,” Whelan said.
The project will now go through an application review, a California Environmental Quality Act analysis and then return to the Design Review Board for a preliminary recommendation before it goes to the city Planning Commission.
Airport Hangar to Be Repurposed
The board also had a conceptual review hearing for a project at 115 Castilian Drive, which would include the development of a repurposed airport hangar from the Santa Barbara Airport.
The one-story converted Hangar 5 building would be used for office space and would be approximately 9,042 square feet.
The site also would include two relocated quonset huts totaling 7,337 square feet from Tri-County Produce in Santa Barbara. The quonset huts also would be used for office space.
The existing building on the property would remain, and the hangar and quonset huts would become part of the business park.
Marc Winnikoff, the property owner, said they originally considered adding a second story to the hangar for more space but decided against it because it would have erased the essence of the hangar.
The hangar and the quonset huts were set to be demolished before Winnikoff took them over. Winnikoff said they are considering adding murals and informational plaques to the side of the building about the hangar’s history.
Board member Jonathan Eymann said repurposing the hangar and quonset huts would be in line with the character of Goleta.
“I like the philosophy, and I think it’s very Goleta of blending research and development with the quonset hut and hanger tradition,” Eymann said. “We have, in the valley here, roots in early aviation, and I think it’s neat to see that physically transported into the future of technology.”
The project also would need to go through application review, a California Environmental Quality Act analysis and then return to the Design Review Board for a preliminary recommendation before going to the city Planning Commission.