Housing, and quality of life as we know it, will be in the hands of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors this week.

The board, over the course of two hearings, will decide whether to rezone land to potentially build up to 5,664 units – 1,522 units for the North County and 4,142 units for the South Coast.

The fate of these dozens of sites set for rezoning has largely been decided by county planning staff. The staff already submitted its Housing Element to the state, and been certified, so the rezone decisions aren’t expected to vary much from what has already been decided.

For a full list of sites that are set to be rezoned, click here.

Noozhawk has written about several of the agriculture sites that the county staff has proposed to rezone to build housing.

The plan to build between 800 and 1,000 new homes at the Glen Annie Golf Club, on a hill across the street from Dos Pueblos High School in Santa Barbara, has sparked the most neighborhood controversy.

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.

The 2023-31 Housing Element has identified 18 potential rezone sites in the North County and 18 potential rezone sites and nine county-owned sites in the South Coast.

The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission recommended that the board rezone eight agriculture sites in North County and 16 agriculture sites in South County.

Santa Barbara County is facing heavy pressure from the state to build more housing to help address the housing crisis. In addition to building overall housing, the county must break it down into affordability levels, based on area median income.

Moderate-income units are considered for a family of four earning between 80% and 120% of the area median income; lower is for families of four earning less than 80% and above moderate is for families of four earning about 120% of the area median income. See the chart below.

Many of the developers pitching housing proposals have promised amenities such as swimming pools, public trails, child care centers, partnerships with local employers and other perks to encourage the board to approve the rezones to pave the way for housing.

Critics, however, contend that building thousands of units on rezoned agriculture sites would devastate the county’s quality of life and increase traffic. The biggest concerns, however, have been that developers are also planning to build thousands of units of market-rate housing, much of which is out of reach of affordability for most working-class people.

Some members of the board have indicated that would only approve rezones of sites if the developers reduce the number of market-rate units and increase affordable units.

The first county board hearing is planned for Tuesday at 511 E. Lakeside Pkwy. in Santa Maria and the second on Friday at 105 E. Anapamu St.