The Montecito Board of Architectural Review on Thursday got a first look at conceptual plans for Ganna Walska Lotusland, a roughly 37-acre botanical garden on Ashley Road in Montecito.
The garden often simply known as Lotusland is eyeing extensive renovations under its five-year phased master plan, which includes a new underground catchment tank and reservoir that will collect stormwater runoff before filtering and storing it.
Other improvements outlined in the master plan include a garden shopping building, staff office building, horticulture complex, restrooms, greenhouse, orchard pavilion, and six caretaker housing units.
Those would be largely modeled after the existing architecture on site.
Several structures would be demolished and removed, including a pink cottage, garage, greenhouse, storage shed and some nursery-related structures.
(The changes reviewed on Thursday do not touch the historical structures on the property, planners clarified.)
These renovations would be done over time as funds are raised, according to applicant representative Laurel Perez.
The project would not result in any significant traffic impacts, per a traffic study, Perez said.
Perez said the team is also looking at its current visitor numbers, and plans to request a “very modest increase” in capacity to “allow for greater public access to the gardens.”
Lotusland Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Anderson told the board that new construction on the property “has been needed for 33 years.” Some structures on the property are over 100 years old.
“We’re pleased to be evolved enough as a young organization on an old and beautiful estate to be at that point to envision the future,” Anderson said.
Several public comment letters threw support behind the project, including one from Laura Bridley, a Lotusland trustee and a former Santa Barbara County planning commissioner.
Another comment letter from Jeff Shelton, who said he has lived across the street from Lotusland since 1950, said he is in “full support of the new improvements.”
“As neighbors go, having Lotusland as a neighbor is as good as it gets,” Shelton wrote.
The Montecito Fire Protection District offered its approval of the plan’s access improvements, which include the reconfiguration of a gate on Cold Spring Road and a new gate on Ashley Road.
The existing main entrance was built in the 1980s and was designed for a lower visitor number than is used today, Lotusland representatives said.
Montecito Battalion Chief Aaron Briner wrote that the access improvements “ensure that the Fire Department will have the necessary access and egress to provide life safety services to Lotusland and, in turn, better protect the surrounding community.”
Board members said the presentation was very complete and expressed early support for the project. They asked clarifying questions about the architectural details and requested to visit Lotusland sometime in the future.
One member asked if a renovated or new building on the site could host the name of Lotusland’s founder and namesake, Madame Ganna Walska.
In response, staff said the entire gardens and Walska are one and the same, and that the entire gardens represent Walska and her vision.
The project must still go through the environmental review process, and should appear at least once more before the board before it heads to the Montecito Planning Commission, Lotusland representatives said.
