The Carpinteria Architectural Review Board granted preliminary approval to the 36-room Surfliner Inn at 499 Linden Ave. on Thursday despite numerous concerns from the community.

Preliminary approval was granted with conditions: that developers study safety conditions on the southeast corner of the project, they develop more detailed lighting and landscaping plans, and they study parking lot conditions.

More than 30 community members spoke during Thursday’s meeting. Supporters wore “All Aboard” stickers and said the project would bring economic growth to the downtown area. 

However, many wanted the project to stop in its tracks over concerns about safety, traffic, and that the size of the hotel is inappropriate for a small beach town community. 

The Surfliner Inn would be built at the current Amtrak parking lot, or City Parking Lot #3, taking up about half of the existing lot. The hotel would be right up against the train platform, and a new 93-space parking lot would be constructed on the vacant city lot on the other side of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The proposed two-story hotel is set to include a cafe and restaurant, rooftop lounge with a bar, pool, event space, visitor center, a manager’s unit, and bicycle storage. 

The city would lease the property to a private developer and hotel operator for this project. City voters rejected Measure T, a 2022 ballot measure trying to rezone the property and block the project.

Local artist Ben Anderson said he went down to 499 Linden Ave. to look at the story poles for the hotel and didn’t have a problem with the size. 

“I’m excited about a rooftop bar — I’ll be honest, a lot of my friends are too. We’re excited about a swimming pool,” Anderson said. “Stuff like that is great for downtown, it’s what gets us excited about being Carpinterians.” 

Jessica Clark, a lifelong Carpinteria resident and former restaurant owner, said the Surfliner Inn would help support business vitality in the area. 

“We need to be vigilant to preserve our small family-oriented beach town; this is why I support the Surfliner Inn,” Clark said. “A boutique inn on Linden Avenue is precisely the type of development we should permit. It’s within the existing commercial district and adds another piece to the puzzle to support our visitor-serving economy.”

The project was previously reviewed in 2020 at a joint City Council, Planning Commission and ARB meeting. Since that review, the developers reduced the number of rooms, relocated the cafe from the northeast corner to the southeast portion, and reduced it by 400 square feet. Additional changes can be read in the staff report. 

William Bishop, a resident and architect, said the project has been improved since it was reviewed in 2020 but he still has concerns about the current design. 

“The mass of it is giant; it blocks access to the platform,” Bishop said. “People parking in the new parking lot are going to have to cross train tracks; in a wheelchair that’s not super easy. Things like that need to be looked at more.”

Bishop and others said the parking lot design was unsafe, especially with the lot on 399 Linden Ave. planned to be a dead end, making it difficult for drivers to turn around. 

Lucy Rodgers, who lives near the proposed development, said the city should be focusing on residents, not tourists. 

“If we need to develop that lot, I think it should be housing with a smaller footprint than what this hotel has,” Rodgers said. “I think that it is a perfect location for lower-income senior housing because they don’t need cars, generally speaking.”

During board deliberations, board member Richard Little said he thought the hotel was still too big for the area and that developers should consider reducing the size. 

He also said that he wished the city had a hotel like this years ago when he and his family were first visiting the area. 

“The hotels on Carpinteria Avenue don’t hold a particular style and ambiance that I think a lot of people are looking for,” Little said. “There were several years where we ended up going to Santa Barbara because they had the nicer hotels, so I think this particular project brings in a certain element of sophistication and style to Carpinteria which has been missing for so many years.”

Board member Patrick O’Connor suggested that the building’s footprint should be farther away from the train platform and had serious concerns about the southeast corner because of how close it is to the railroad crossing. 

“I just don’t want to find myself having approved this thing and ten years later we got tragedies on our hands with that safety problem,” O’Connor said. 

However, the ARB did not recommend that the developers reduce the size of the project in their preliminary approval.

Now the city will prepare an environmental impact report for the project. The report will be reviewed by the city’s environmental review committee before the project goes to the city Planning Commission.