With the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission’s support, a proposed Goleta Valley apartment building now will go to the Board of Supervisors for review.
The three-story, 27-unit project is located at 5317 Calle Real, near the intersection with North Patterson Avenue. The property is a former orchard site and is adjacent to self-storage facilities.
County project planner Sean Stewart said the Galileo Pisa LLC apartments will “help diversify housing stock” and are conveniently located near the Calle Real Shopping Center, UC Santa Barbara, Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital and local bus stops. If approved, the apartments would be market-rate rentals.
The building will have 60 vehicle parking spots, 54 covered bicycle parking spots and some open space on the freeway side of the property.
“The way rents are in Santa Barbara, it is presumed you have to almost have two working people in a unit, and I can’t see them not having cars,” applicant Trudi Carey told planning commissioners on Wednesday. “As much as we want them to ride bicycles and we’re providing for bicycles, I don’t think a single person with one car is going to be able to afford the unit.”
Many design features of the project were altered during the Board of Architectural Review process, according to Carey, including making the roof ridged instead of flat, breaking the carport structure into three smaller structures, and “undulating” the residential building so it is not a rectangle — even though it creates some trapezoid-shaped apartments.
Carey, the project applicant, is president of The Carey Group, which built the nearby Patterson Self-Storage and Patterson 101 Plus Storage facilities.
Planning commissioners unanimously supported the apartment project in a vote Wednesday. Their recommendation for approval goes to the Board of Supervisors, which has final say in the project.
The commissioners also recommended that the Board of Supervisors consider adding a crosswalk and beacon lights at the driveways for the project and the Orchard Park Lane housing subdivision across Calle Real.
Planning Commissioner Daniel Blough said he was glad to have county review of the project, and noted that the developer could build more units and less parking on the property under new state housing laws.
“I’m kind of excited to look at this project because we do have some controls, you know, both with landscaping, parking access, all that good stuff,” he said.
Dozens of people sent in comment letters either supporting or opposing the project. A few hundred people signed postcards saying they objected to the project and another rental housing project at 80 N. Patterson Ave.
Project supporters urged the commissioners to approve the apartments, which they say will add much-needed rental housing in the Goleta Valley.
The design changes requested by the BAR made it a stronger project, Michelle Jansen wrote in her comment letter.
“There is a density requirement for economic feasibility, and I believe the Planning Commission needs to consider this. The alternative is no new construction by developers or even higher rents to pay for the construction costs,” she wrote in a comment letter to the commission for Wednesday’s meeting. “The county should encourage these projects so that people can work and live here, not commute 45 minutes each way, for example.”
Critics said the project is “too dense” for the site, although county planners said the building has fewer units than allowed under the residential zoning for the property.
“Galileo is proposing a three-story structure that is up to 417% denser (than) the existing neighborhood. Its three story single-structure design creates a monolithic mass out of character with the neighborhood and ignores the (community plan) directive to A) cluster the structures and B) place parking behind structures,” Paul Bradford of Patterson Neighborhoods wrote.
The BAR wanted the building set back from the street, and the placement also reduces road noise for the apartment residents, according to Carey.
— 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.