The Goleta City Council and the Goleta Planning Commission continued their discussion on rezoning sites to allow for more housing in another five-hour meeting Tuesday evening.

The two groups met for a special meeting last Thursday to begin considering candidate sites to be rezoned to allow for residential uses as the city works to revise its 2023-31 Housing Element to satisfy the California Department of Housing and Community Development and get the plan certified.

“We’ve heard about the housing affordability crisis, and the state has passed many laws to address that, and we’ve also known that these laws have reduced or eliminated, in some cases, the option to say no to growth and development,” Councilman Kyle Richards said. “So what we hope to accomplish through this exercise is to do what we can to plan responsibly and to be thoughtful about how we get more housing in a way that satisfies the state’s requirements but minimizes or avoids unwanted impacts to our city or to particular neighborhoods. I think we can all agree here that we want to preserve the character of Goleta.”

Goleta first submitted its adopted Housing Element in January, but the state decided not to certify it at the time, issuing a review letter on March 20 directing the city to consider rezoning sites in order to meet its Regional Housing Need Allocations.

For this Housing Element, the state has said that Goleta needs to identify sites to develop a total of 1,837 units — 682 of which for the very-low-income category. 

With the candidate sites list updated after last week’s meeting, the city’s site inventory can accommodate 838 lower-income units, exceeding its shortfall of 637 units.

The Goleta City Council and the Planning Commission considered seven sites on the alternative sites list during Tuesday’s meeting.

“At its basis level, what we’re really saying and asking ourselves is, where are there places that it makes sense for housing that there currently isn’t any and how much housing is appropriate for those places?” Councilman James Kyriaco said. “The complex part is getting to the how much, and that’s where you really have to take into account a lot of the planning principles and concerns.

“At a fundamental level, our community works best when we have a diversity of choices for a diversity of folks — a diversity of housing options to maintain a diverse community.”

The alternative sites that were discussed Tuesday included 6470 Hollister Ave., a site along Viajero Drive, two sites at 7780 Hollister Ave., parcels east of 7190 Hollister Ave., 6950 Hollister Ave. and 625 Dara Road.

While no final decisions were made during Tuesday’s meeting, council members and planning commissioners took polls to gauge how each person felt about rezoning those sites.

Most, if not all, members agreed not to rezone or add the following sites to the Housing Element — the Viajero site, both portions of 7780 Hollister Ave. and 6950 Hollister Ave.

For each of those sites, the property owners either did not express interest in rezoning or have expressed intentions for uses other than residential.

While city staff said that property owner approval isn’t needed for rezoning, they are still seeking this approval, and council members and planning commissioners said they were not comfortable adding these sites to its inventory without property owner interest.

Most of the council and commission expressed interest in rezoning 6470 Hollister Ave. for community commercial use.

For the parcels to the east of 7190 Hollister Ave., the council and the commission were split on whether to propose rezoning, with some concerned with traffic impacts and how development could impact nearby environmentally sensitive habitat areas.

Property owners for those parcels spoke during public comment, expressing their interest in rezoning to include residential units, such as senior housing or workforce housing.

Most council members and planning commissioners were supportive of rezoning those parcels for high-density residential uses.

Several public commenters also spoke against rezoning 625 Dara Road, citing concerns related to traffic, strains on local infrastructure and impacts to the nearby Kellogg Elementary School.

The council and the commission expressed support for rezoning the 625 Dara Road site to either high-density or medium-density residential uses.

The Goleta City Council and the Planning Commission are scheduled to continue their discussion with another joint meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers, located in City Hall at 130 Cremona Drive. Community members can also watch a livestream of the meeting via Zoom or on the city’s website.