Noozhawk’s Housing & Development Directory is a database of residential and nonresidential projects going through the City of Santa Barbara’s review process.
The directory includes in-progress projects that trigger a building permit, whether they are pending, approved or have been issued.
The intent is to track projects with neighborhood-level impact, not neighbor impact. You probably won’t find kitchen remodels in it, unless it’s part of a larger project.
Projects are organized alphabetically by the street address, and the project descriptions include the type of project, when available (apartment building, condominium, accessory dwelling unit, mixed-use building, commercial building), and the status in the city review process.
You can find project information by navigating the map or searching by street address on the main directory page: https://www.noozhawk.com/housing_and_development/directory.
Database information comes from the City of Santa Barbara website and is updated regularly, although individual listing information may not always be current.
You can specifically track Average Unit-Size Density Incentive Program projects (multifamily developments) on the city page here, which also maps the projects in the pipeline.
To search city resources for project information, you can use the Santa Barbara case status tracker here (for project applications submitted before March 2019) or the Citizen Access database for newer projects (submitted after February 2019).
There are some agencies that don’t need city approval for projects, but go through a courtesy review, such as public schools (K-12 districts and Santa Barbara City College), and the state-owned Earl Warren Showgrounds.
That goes for public colleges and universities elsewhere, too — UC Santa Barbara doesn’t need City of Goleta or Santa Barbara County approval for its development projects, since it goes through the State of California.
The California Coastal Commission has jurisdiction for some beachfront properties, including Stearns Wharf.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.