The Santa Barbara City Council adopted a new plan Tuesday that streamlines the environmental review process for future housing projects and programs.
The housing plan program environmental impact report was approved in a 5-1 vote, with Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon voting against it and Councilman Mike Jordan absent from the meeting.
The report evaluates potential impacts of implementing new housing programs and actions that are needed for the city to accommodate permitting its regional housing needs allocation of more than 8,000 new units over an eight-year period.
Sneddon voted against the program, explaining that she was hesitant “to streamline too far” and that she wanted to see additional studies related to fire station needs, the plan for Tajiguas Landfill closing, wastewater demand, and schools to accommodate residents of new units.
“I’m hesitant to have an overarching, holistic EIR that exempts things first and then goes back to projects,” Sneddon said. “Even though I can see what the streamlining ability would be, I’m just hesitant to streamline too far.”
The report did find that current fire services would be sufficient to cover planned housing growth, according to Julia Pujo, a city environmental analyst.
The program environmental impact report provides a citywide analysis on the impacts related to implementing the city’s current and future housing programs, such as a short-term rental program, an adaptive reuse program, an accessory dwelling unit production program and more.
Specifically, it analyzes the effects of construction and growth, as well as operation impacts. It does not evaluate any individual or specific housing development projects, according to Pujo.
With the state taking local control away from jurisdictions not meeting housing requirements, Councilman Eric Friedman said this plan provides a mitigation process while showing that the city is making an effort to produce housing.
“We do need to keep an eye on a lot of these issues that development is causing, but at the same time, we’re either going to move forward with housing production where we need it in strategic areas and facilitate that or we’re not,” Friedman said.
If the council didn’t adopt the program’s environmental impact reports, each individual housing program would have to go through its own environmental review process, creating an additional expense and administrative burden for the city, according to City Administrator Kelly McAdoo.
She added that all projects still will receive a comprehensive review by the city’s development team.
The program is meant to streamline the environment review process while identifying mitigation efforts that could be applied to future housing projects and programs.
The environmental impacts that require mitigations include air quality, biological resources, cultural and tribal resources, noise, utility and service systems, and hazardous materials, according to Pujo.
Mitigation efforts vary but included construction practices that reduce emissions, protections for creeks and wildlife, protections for tribal cultural and archaeological resources, and a construction noise management plan.
The mitigation efforts would be applied to applicable housing developments dealing with environmental impacts.
The streamlined process applies to projects consistent with zoning and the city’s general plan, but doesn’t exempt projects from further review.
Pujo said the program is meant to allow for a streamlined review process, but the city could subject individual projects to further review if necessary or if there are impacts not considered in the program environmental impact report.
Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria said she supported the plan, with hesitation, noting how neighborhoods can suffer if a development is not thoughtfully planned with the surrounding area in mind.
“I encourage us to think about how do we meet developers where they’re at so they can develop housing,” Santamaria said, “but not at the risk of these neighborhood impacts that we can foresee and that we can do something about.”
