The owners of the San Marcos Growers property have submitted an application to build 996 apartments across more than 30 acres in the Goleta Valley.
The project is in sync with Santa Barbara County’s plan to re-zone the land from agricultural to residential to meet state demands for new housing. If the county doesn’t rezone the land, the developers plan to move forward under the state’s builder’s remedy law because 20% of the proposed units are affordable.
“We are local developers working with a local family to address a housing crisis that is decades in the making,” said John Blair, principal of Presidio Capital Partners. “Our joint vision is to deliver rental housing that reflects the needs of our local community.”
The developers submitted their application on Wednesday. Whether they build the housing project or not, the business owners plan to close the nursery.
Planners from the county in 2021 reached out to the San Marcos Growers owners and asked if they were interested in building housing at the site.
The properties sit on both sides of South San Marcos Road. The developers have partnered with the Housing Authority of Santa Barbara County to build 20%, or about 200 of the units as affordable units.
“We are very excited about this partnership and the opportunity to provide additional much-needed affordable rental housing for our community,” said John Polanskey, director of Housing Development. “This site is uniquely situated for the people we serve with its proximity to public transit, job centers, schools, parks, shops and other services.”
The project proposes 480 one-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 550 to 815 square feet, and 516 two-bedroom units ranging from 790 to 1,088 square feet.
Amenities would include a lounge, clubhouse, fitness center, pool, spa, fire pits, barbeques, fireplaces, community garden, dog park and walking trail. About 1,254 parking spaces are proposed as part of the project.
The state has mandated that the county find land to build 5,664 units of housing between now and 2031. Of the 5,664 new housing units, 4,142 must be on the South Coast, and 1,522 must be in North County.
The planning department is under political pressure from the South Coast members of Board of Supervisors to find sites for housing to make up for years of approving most new housing development in the North County instead of the South Coast.
That Board of Supervisors’ pressure over revising the Housing Element to build housing has forced out key staff members, with about 30% of departing in the past year, including two project managers and the deputy director. The Housing Element update comes after a grueling supervisor-directed and controversial cannabis ordinance that also wore out staff.
With an election coming next year, the supervisors are beating the drum of a pro-housing platform, which has placed even further pressures on county staff.
The county missed the state deadline to submit its housing element, as did other jurisdictions across the state, and is now going back-and-forth with the state on revisions to the document.
The San Marcos Growers site appears to be less controversial than some of the other proposed sites for re-zoning to residential for large housing projects. The owners of the land said they plan to end the nursery operation in the next couple of years, saying it is not financially viable.
“My family has owned this property for over four decades,” said Brett Hodges, property owner and spokesman for the family.
“Our parents purchased it as a real estate investment and future site for housing. So when we were approached by the county to be a potential site for development in the housing element, our family felt this was a perfectly timed opportunity to achieve our parents’ vision and to provide needed housing for South County workers who currently have to commute from northern Santa Barbara County and from Ventura.”
The site is near San Marcos High School, the Magnolia Shopping Center, the Turnpike Shopping Center and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. It’s between Highway 101 and Hollister Avenue.
“This particular site appealed to us because of its proximity to services, infrastructure, and transportation which make a project like this possible,” said Andrew Fuller, principal of Presidio Capital Partners. “It’s essentially an infill location, surrounded by residential and commercial development.”
