After three years of COVID-19-inspired “emergency” closure of 10-plus blocks of State Street in downtown Santa Barbara, City Council approval of a three-year extension of that closure, and more than a year of State Street Advisory Committee meetings, not a single word has been spoken of potential costs of the “promenade” project.
How much can the City of Santa Barbara expect to spend on this plan?
For guidance we can look at the 1986 remodel of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
In 1986, projected capital expenses for the remodel of the three-block long Santa Monica promenade were $10 million.
In today’s dollars that would be an approximately $27 million project — $9 million per block.
The Third Street Promenade is a quarter-mile long and 70 feet wide. The 1986 remodel costs today would be almost $300 per square foot.
At $300 per square foot, the current eight-block configuration of the State Street “promenade” would cost around $107 million. A 10-block configuration would cost in the neighborhood of $134 million.
Considering that Santa Monica’s promenade was already closed to traffic, and that certain infrastructure supporting the pedestrian mall already existed, we can expect that Santa Barbara costs would be higher.
We can also look to Santa Barbara’s current State Street Underpass Project at Highway 101. Capital costs of around $11 million are expected for this short stretch of State Street.
Annual continuing capital costs, maintenance and staffing for a State Street Promenade would be significant.
How significant? Why don’t we know this? Why is this not discussed?
A 2022 article in the Boulder Reporting Lab in Colorado discussed the City of Boulder’s decision to reopen blocks of West Pearl Street that were closed to vehicles during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It did not start with a street closure,” one city official said. “It started with a plan and process with some money behind it. And that is what we would suggest any major decision in this community should start with.”
Since then, he added, “every consequential decision” regarding the mall started with a deliberate process and funding.
The official said the planning for the Pearl Street Mall took about 10 years of planning before it was built in 1977.
If Santa Barbarans were aware of the projected costs and expenses of an eight- to 10-block pedestrian mall, would they still support it? Or would they ask how that $100 million to $150 million might be better spent?
How many other capital projects or neighborhood improvements would need to be suspended?
How many years of disruptive construction will be required?
What will happen to businesses in the blocks under construction?
And finally, how it will be paid for?
If the City Council and the community really want a pedestrian mall downtown on State Street, it should be thoroughly planned.
The city should be required to show us how much it will cost.
And then, the city should be required to show us the money.
