Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Das Williams talks about the La Cumbre Plaza meeting where county and city elected officials denied $1.1 million in funding for a specific plan to build 2,000 new housing units.

In the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina, Williams defended his decision, and said his opposition to funding the city of Santa Barbara’s La Cumbre Plaza specific plan was because he thought the city process would take too long and slow down a competing project with 685 units.

Williams said that the city has dragged its feet with housing for too long, and perceived city planners and Mayor Randy Rowse as being obstructive to the planning process.

He also said they were unconvincing and unprepared at the SBCAG meeting.

“They didn’t come with any kind of legal opinion,” Williams said. “They didn’t bring lawyers. We didn’t blindside them. We told them the day before that they have to come with evidence and they came with no evidence.”

La Cumbre Plaza is set for redevelopment, but exactly what that will look like is unknown. The City wants a specific plan where it pulls all the property owners together to work with the city on a holistic plan to build up to 2,000 units.

Planners say this is the smartest way to build something so massive because building housing projects piecemeal will adversely impact traffic congestion and overwhelm local schools.

The Taylor family has submitted a project for 685 units and Williams and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments board of directs said that project should move ahead and not be tied up by a specific plan. Mayor Randy Rowse was outvoted 10-1 and was not pleased with Williams’ strong opposition and criticism of planners.

Williams aims to clarify his stance in this podcast.

“The case has not been made as to why the specific plan would be superior to incentivizing those investors to come together,” Williams said. “Why would that be superior to just approving the Taylor project.”

Williams also talks about cannabis and serving with Laura Capps, his formal rival, on the board of supervisors.

“The fact is that Carpinteria re-elected me by 15 points,” Williams said. “And that was right in the middle of fighting over marijuana. Most of the people in Carpinteria have moved on.”

As for serving alongside Capps, Williams said he’s looking for common ground.

“I do think the attacks she made during the election were cynically based,” Williams said. “We do agree on a lot of things. We both care about things like poverty and climate change, and I want to work hard on concentrating on that.”

Williams also said he plans to seek a third term on the supervisors.

“I am definitely running for re-election in 2024,” Williams said. “I am prepared and will be ready to get into a re-election fight if necessary. I would rather concentrate on doing the county work. That’s definitely what I feel is better for the people.

“But I was able to get re-elected even when a Capps was running against me, so I think it is going to be hard for someone to find an opponent of that caliber.”