Streamlining government regulation, adding housing, and keeping a clean environment. These are just some suggestions retail experts shared with the Santa Barbara City Council on Thursday as they discussed how to bring back in-person shopping in Santa Barbara. 

The City Council held a special retail symposium meeting on Thursday in the Faulkner Gallery at the Santa Barbara Library as the city grapples with the state of State Street and Paseo Nuevo redevelopment.

The symposium included discussions from Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, Rick Lemmo, senior vice president of Caruso Properties, and Mark Ingalls, property manager of Camino Real Marketplace in Goleta.

Michelin discussed some of the challenges communities are facing when it comes to economic development in California. 

“Retailers want to see a vibrant business community in California,” Michelin said. “This is the largest retail market in the nation. Retailers have to sell here because this is where the population is, but we’re also the most regulated state in the nation, where it’s extremely expensive to operate in a state like California.”

The No. 1 issue Michelin said she hears from retail companies has to do with housing. She explained that companies want to make sure that there will be enough traffic at their business to help them cover the cost of operations. 

She also shared that companies are struggling with the cost of complying with numerous state regulations. 

“Part of what I think is a role for local government, in particular, is to have those conversations with your elected officials at the state level, to tell them, ‘If we want to see more investment in our communities, we need to streamline regulatory processes,’” Michelin said. “We need to make it easier, even at the state level.”

In one example, Michelin said that a CEO of a national brand told her that they wanted to build more stores in California but it would cost them over half a million dollars just to comply with the electrical vehicle charging regulation and the solar regulation for one store. 

Lemmo discussed the importance of knowing who the customers are and keeping a clean and safe environment by picking up trash, and funding the police department to ensure homeless individuals aren’t loitering outside of businesses. 

“That’s a step towards extending that invitation for people to come and feel comfortable and feel safe and, last but not least, what everybody likes, to feel wanted,” Lemmo said. 

When asked what to do about vacant buildings, Lemmo discouraged the city from implementing a vacancy tax. 

“It makes a little bit of money, but it’s the worst marketing tool ever,” Lemmo said. “It is as if you were putting up a sign that said ‘go anywhere but here.’”

He did encourage window dressing in vacant buildings to advertise shows at local theaters or support nearby restaurants. 

Coming from a property management perspective, Ingalls said his role, and the role of landlords, is to keep shopping areas safe, secure and comfortable so people want to visit the businesses. 

“I think much like State Street, the role that you all have is to create an environment that’s safe, that’s clean, that’s welcoming, and you have to rely on your residents, your tenants, both national and local and regional tenants, to do what they do and bring the elements that are needed and requested by the community,” Ingalls said. 

To do that, Ingalls said housing needs to be part of State Street. 

“It’s a neighborhood, it can be a neighborhood,” Ingalls said. “If it was a neighborhood, it would be more sustainable, it would be more inviting for people that live here to actually be out and engaged on the street.”

He added that every two-story building on State Street should have housing and every new building that wanted a third or fourth floor should be encouraged to add housing. 

“I think if we did that, we would have a vibrant downtown main street,” Ingalls said.

Tess Harris, State Street Master Planner with the city of Santa Barbara, said that Thursday’s meeting was the first of its kind and that there will be more meetings with retail stakeholders as the city focuses on Downtown revitalization.