Five years ago, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Santa Barbara closed a portion of State Street to vehicles to help restaurants bring their dining outdoors and stay in business.
Today, the street is still closed, and city staff members have new ideas for how to help restaurants.
The City Council on Tuesday voted 5-1 to install sidewalk extenders, called “pedlets,” along the 500 block of State Street. The hardware will widen the sidewalk and remove the outdoor dining from the street and put it on the sidewalk.
The cost to add the extenders to a single block is $528,170. The expense was buried in the City Council’s consent agenda, usually reserved for routine, smaller items, not part of the main agenda. There was no staff presentation or formal discussion on the proposal.
Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, however, did have some comments after pulling the item from the agenda for discussion.
“I cannot support the pedlets. I cannot support the golf carts,” said Rowse, who was the only objector.
The city is also planning to pay a private company $80,000 to run a golf-cart style mini-shuttle program along State Street.
Rowse, who has been an advocate for reopening portions of State Street between the 500 and 1200 blocks to vehicles, expressed disappointment with the direction the city is taking.
“The pedlets are basically putting plastic sidewalks in El Pueblo Viejo, which has been our treasured, historic architectural district since post-earthquake, and now we’ll be putting some Trex sidewalks in the middle of that,” Rowse said.
City staff plans to re-allocate about $1.2 million in Measure C funds for the pedlets, and other State Street changes, including landscaping, play elements and lighting. The money originally was set aside for the Revenue Control System project, which would fund replacement of the city’s Parking Access and Revenue Control System.
Rowse said the city is “working on the edges about reopening the street.”
“This is really planning by 1,000 cuts,” Rowse said.
Santa Barbara has been locked in a debate over how to contend with State Street for years. Rowse and colleague Eric Friedman want at least portions of State Street reopened to vehicles, but a majority of the council has opposed returning the street to pre-COVID-19 conditions.
In the meantime, State Street has become an electric-bike boulevard throughout the day, and — other than programmed special events on certain nights of the week — dead in the evenings. The 500 block has maintained popularity, however, largely driven by the success of restaurants.
Pedlets will be ordered within the month following the Council meeting today, said Tess Harris, State Street Master Planner.
“They will be installed by July 2025, assuming no manufacturer or shipping delays,” Harris said.
Outreach to the 500 block businesses is a priority, and the plans to work with them to transition to using the pedlets, Harris said.
The 1200 block of State Street has been reopened to vehicles in one direction, headed north.