The owners of the Glen Annie Golf Club want to build between 800 and 1,000 new homes on the existing golf course, on a hill across the street from Dos Pueblos High School in Santa Barbara.

The plan calls for the demolition of the course, and in its place, a mix of housing types, including apartments, studios and single-family homes. The proposal has been met with opposition from nearby residents who have raised concerns about housing density and traffic circulation.

To sweeten the deal, however, the developers also have proposed a child-care center, hiking trails, a community center, a swimming pool and other public amenities. The developers also are in talks with the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Barbara Unified School District and Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara to build affordable housing at the site.

The overall site is 175 acres, and 100 acres would be for public use, which the developers say is the backbone of the project.

“Right now, it is a golf course and it is limited to people who play golf, and it is such a beautiful space,” said Gelare Macon, a land use planner and project manager with Flowers & Associates.

The developers are hoping that the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will approve a rezone of the property, paving the way for the project. County planners are counting on the site to get rezoned to comply with the Housing Element that it submitted to the state.

According to state orders, Santa Barbara County must find land to build 5,664 new housing units; 4,142 must be on the South Coast, and 1,522 must be in the North County. Several other sites, most of them near Goleta, are proposed for housing.

The Board of Supervisors is set to consider on April 30 whether to rezone the site to build housing.

Macon has been making the rounds with public pitches of the project, showing colorful renderings and pictures of people riding bicycles and walking dogs. The visuals have not specifically outlined where any of the parking for the project would go.

She said she had “no idea” how many people would actually live at the site. She told a reporter to use census data to get “an average household size for Goleta residents; you can use that and then multiply that by 1,000.”

“We haven’t finalized the site plan,” Macon said. “We’re just showing what the densities would be in those areas, but we’ve heard that parking is a concern. The more parking you provide, the more traffic it leads to.

“It’s this push-and-pull of do you provide a ton of parking to make sure that there are no impacts, but knowing that could increase traffic, or do you provide the minimum required parking to reduce that traffic load? But then it could have impacts. You have to bridge that impact.”

As for the housing, Macon said there would be apartments, townhomes, condos, rowhouses and single-family homes. The project does not qualify as a so-called “builder’s remedy,” so even if the Board of Supervisors rezones the project, it still would need to undergo a regular environmental review and process.

Macon said the developers want to devote 7.7 acres of land to the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

“The school district would own that land and could provide housing for their employees,” Macon told Noozhawk. “Not just the teachers, but also the cafeteria workers, the custodial workers, the admin — anyone who is employed with the district would have access to that housing.”

They are currently in talks to build between 231 and 308 units for school district employees.

“Let’s say we have 1,000 units; 31% would be going to the school district,” she said.

Gabe Escobedo, a member of the Santa Barbara school board, said that “it’s not an overstatement to say that this land donation has the chance to change the course of our school district’s future. It is going to be good for our teachers and staff and their families, and that will translate directly to positive outcomes for our students.”

He said the partnership would serve as a recruitment tool.

“Santa Barbara is a tough place to live for lots of folks,” Escobedo said. “This will make SBUSD a much more competitive destination when recruiting and it will allow us to retain our best teachers. I’m also hoping this can be an example of what’s possible for other districts, not just in the area, but across the state.”

Despite the early public relations effort to build public support for the project, significant opposition exists.

“Even under current conditions, traffic frequently backs up on the Glen Annie/Storke Road exit ramp onto northbound lanes of the 101 freeway,” Ron Ehmsen wrote in a letter to the county. “Adding 1,000 or more vehicles would greatly aggravate this situation and create hazards to safety. How does the city and county propose to handle this dangerous backup?”

Macon said they have done a traffic study for Cathedral Oaks by Dos Pueblos High School, but a study of traffic at the Glen Annie/Storke Road offramp hasn’t been done. The project still needs to go through an environmental review.

Ehmsen also noted that the golf course provides a fire break for Goleta neighborhoods and Dos Pueblos High School.

“Under the proposed development, such open spaces would be destroyed,” Ehmsen said.

In his letter to the county, Phillip Tennant raised concerns about the potential traffic impacts to the area, which he said would be “horrendous.”

“I can’t imagine the gridlock with parents and children becoming frustrated and making dangerous decisions when trying to get to work and school,” Tennant wrote. “Drivers will seek alternative routes to get to work through local neighborhoods.”

Resident Paulette Le Blanc said she is “appalled” by the proposal to build up to 1,000 units on the Glen Annie golf course.

“Cathedral Oaks, Glen Annie Road and the Highway 101 overpass (are) extremely busy during the morning and evening rush hours,” Le Blanc wrote. “Adding more cars will exacerbate this situation and greatly impact public safety.”

Le Blanc noted that Glen Annie Road is only one lane in each direction and that there isn’t room to widen the road.

Macon said they plan to add three entrances into the property on Cathedral Oaks Road.

Macon cited the recent Santa Barbara County Association of Governments travel trends report that showed that Goleta has emerged as a jobs hub as a reason for supporting the housing project.

She said the Glen Annie Golf Club is near larger employers such as UCSB, Raytheon, Deckers and the Ritz-Carlton Bacara.

“That is where the jobs hub has become; it’s Goleta,” said Macon, who is also the planner for La Cumbre Plaza and its proposal to build nearly 700 housing units. “It’s no longer Santa Barbara. I know that Goleta is getting a lot of housing, but it’s also where the jobs are, and that is what we are trying to balance.”