Local preservationists came a step closer Wednesday to putting a contentious initiative on the November ballot that would drastically lower building-height limits in Santa Barbara, getting their paperwork signed by the city clerk.
At a small news conference Wednesday on the steps of City Hall, the group — called Save El Pueblo Viejo in reference to the historic downtown district — announced its intent to start collecting signatures. To qualify, the group needs 4,200 valid signatures by mid-April.
“What’s great about Santa Barbara is its small-town feel and sense of openness,” said former Mayor Sheila Lodge, a supporter of the initiative who led the city through the 1980s and early ‘90s. “We are losing it.
The group, which is led by former Planning Commissioner Bill Mahan and includes recently unseated City Councilman Brian Barnwell, believes that if voters do not take matters into their own hands, city officials will allow Santa Barbara to become overrun with tall buildings.
They say it is already happening, pointing to a statistic they compiled showing that the number of buildings over 45 feet approved or proposed in the past two years nearly equals the amount built in the 85 years prior.
The initiative would ask voters whether the current 60-foot height limit in the city’s commercial zones should be reduced to 40 in the historic downtown area, and 45 feet in the rest of the city.
Opponents say it would hamstring the city’s efforts to hold onto its middle-class workers by making it more difficult to develop affordable housing.
“Young families don’t have places to live in the community; they are leaving,” said Jerry Bunin, government affairs director for the Home Builders Association of the Central Coast. “The height limit would add to the problems Santa Barbara already has: way too many work-force people commuting long distances.”
Opponents also say city planning by popular vote runs the risk of being detrimentally over-simple. It’s a poorly conceived cudgel-like measure that doesn’t allow for the analysis of an EIR (Environmental Impact Review); it’s bad planning,” affordable housing activist Mickey Flacks said. “Any developer would build all structures to the 40-foot limit. You would just have straight-across buildings at that height. I don’t think that’s what these folks want.”
The City Charter’s current height limits were established by voters in 1972. In reaction to a proposal to build nine-story condominiums in what is now Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens, a successful ballot initiative set height limits of 60 feet in the city’s commercial and industrial zones. The initiative also established a 45-foot limit for apartment buildings and motels, but housing structures located within the commercial zones can still be 60 feet.
If the initiative makes the ballot, it would coincide with the Nov. 4 presidential election and require a simple majority for approval.
Among the handful of supporters at Wednesday’s news conference were representatives from the League of Women Voters.
“This is a good first step of living within our resources,” said League member Cathie McCammon. “If all buildings build to 60 feet, we will be way beyond the resource limits of Santa Barbara.”
