After years of debate, the Santa Barbara City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday night to support the vision in the State Street Master Plan, but it took out the hours specifying when vehicles will be allowed access to the downtown corridor.  

The lengthy discussion was over the city’s long-awaited State Street Master Plan, which proposes redesigning the downtown corridor of State Street for the first time since the area was closed to vehicle traffic at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Councilwoman Meagan Harmon praised the proposal, saying it reflected years of conversations about downtown. 

“The plan is detailed enough, in my view, to give us a path forward, but flexible enough to allow us to respond in real time to the constraints and opportunities that are inevitably going to arise over the years and, frankly, over the generations to come,” Harmon said.

The city proposed installing retractable bollards, which would prioritize pedestrian and cyclist access from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., while allowing vehicle access for deliveries, garbage collection and construction services from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Councilman Eric Friedman said he supported adding the bollards but wasn’t ready to specify hours of operations. 

The rest of the council largely agreed and voted to take the specified hours out of the plan, to be decided on later. 

The bollards would be lowered and raised using remotes, which would also allow emergency vehicles through at any time, and open hours could be changed in the future. They would be installed at each intersection along downtown State Street from Haley to Victoria streets, according to the draft master plan.

Mayor Randy Rowse, who has been open about wanting to fully reopen State Street, said he couldn’t support the direction in which the plan was heading.

“What I’m afraid of doing is spending a whole lot of money creating a pretty version of what we’ve got,” Rowse said. 

He added that the city could do something similar to what’s in the plan, but just allow more space for vehicles.

“I would ask for a reset of this. I’m not going to get it, I can tell here tonight,” Rowse said. “But I just think we’re making a big investment, for a long, long time, and we’re trying to turn State into something it isn’t.”

Tess Harris, State Street master planner, acknowledged the numerous eras of the city’s main thoroughfare, from the 1925 earthquake to when the street closed to vehicles in 2020. She also noted the passion that people have shared about the street’s future.

“The concerns we’ve heard about access, and e-bikes, and parking and safety are signs that this community still feels a deep sense of ownership over its downtown,” Harris said, “and that intensity has made this plan stronger, it’s pushed us to find smarter solutions and it reflects an enduring belief that State Street can once again be the vibrant heart of civic life in Santa Barbara.”

The community has had mixed thoughts on the plan, with some residents supporting the prioritization of pedestrians and cyclists, others wanting the street fully open to vehicles and some wanting a ban on cyclists. 

The plan was meant to create a compromise for the community, but Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon took it a step further and suggested keeping the 700 to 900 blocks, between Ortega and Carrillo streets, closed to vehicles at all times. 

After some debate, it was determined that some blocks couldn’t be closed while some were open, and that the design had to be cohesive, so the council settled on a rather vague decision.

The council also voted 6-1, with Rowse against, to design the 700 to 900 blocks as a “passive space,” with an anchoring design element and “making the three blocks special.”

That doesn’t mean that the street will be closed to vehicles but that there will be some kind of “passive space” somewhere in those blocks. The exact details will be worked out in the coming months.

The hearing also included a wide variety of opinions in public comment.

Michael Mota, a lifelong resident, said the plans don’t look like Santa Barbara.

“It makes it seem like it’s easier just to open State Street as a whole because we’re losing the tradition, we’re losing the culture, we’re losing the community right here with this whole new Santa Barbara,” Mota said. 

Kevin Heim said he supports the vision of the State Street master plan, but it “goes off the rails” with the proposal to allow private cars at night.

“Those hours after 10 p.m. are not a low-risk, off-peak period. They are exactly when impairment, darkness, crowding, distraction and night-life activity come together to increase the risk of severe injury or death,” Heim said. 

The plan splits the nine blocks between Sola and Gutierrez streets into three districts: the entertainment district, the civic and commercial district, and the arts district.

State Street sidewalks in those districts would be expanded to 30 feet on both sides, with two 10-foot travel lanes in the center of the street.

The total cost of the project ranges from $48 million to $68 million, or $6 million to $8 million a block. Staff proposed that funding could come from various sources, including the city’s capital budget, state transportation funds, hotel tax reinvestment, parking revenue, and state and federal grants. 

Staff also proposed that construction would happen in three phases over the course of 10 years. 

Funding could come from a number of grants that city staff recommended that the city apply for, as well as expanding Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association property assessment boundaries and negotiating a transient occupancy tax reinvestment agreement.

In June, city staff will be taking the master plan to the Historic Landmarks Commission, the Planning Commission, the Access Advisory Committee, the Downtown Parking Committee, and the Transportation and Circulation Committee for review. 

The city also plans to host at least one open house for the public to take a look at the plan.

In August, staff will return to the City Council with a detailed funding plan.