Housing
Affordable and Workforce Housing
SB CAN advocates for affordable and workforce housing near jobs and transportation centers.
2007 Housing Projects
SB CAN Supports Lawsuit About “Dumb-Growth” Veronica Meadows Project in Santa Barbara
In January 2007, SB CAN supported a lawsuit filed by Citizens Planning Association (CPA) against City of Santa Barbara and the owners of the proposed Veronica Meadows luxury housing project along Las Positas Road and Arroyo Burro in Santa Barbara.that not all reasonable and feasible project alternatives were adequately explored or mitigated, thus causing unnecessary impacts on the creek environment and traffic in this heavily impacted corridor in Las Positas Valley.
In addition, SB CAN was concerned that the community would be subject to significant adverse impacts for the sake of expensive multi-million-dollar homes that the City had no obligation to approve. SB CAN is committed to supporting projects that provide more of the workforce and low-income housing that our community really needs while addressing corresponding environmental and transportation issues. There is no shortage of luxury housing in our county to justify the negative impacts posed by this project.
The 2003-2008 Housing Element
SB CAN recognizes that the County is facing a crisis with respect to the availability of affordable housing for low income residents. That’s why we support the state’s housing mandate that requires enough high-density zoning to meet the county’s need for affordable housing. However, we also recognize that affordable housing needs to be built across the county near job and transportation centers. That’s why we opposed the County’s plan in 2007 to locate all of the affordable housing rezones needed to satisfy the State’s Housing Mandate in the north county, with five of those sites in Orcutt. That’s why we also had serious concerns about the County’s new plan to satisfy that affordable housing need in Isla Vista. Finding a solution to the housing crisis will not be easy, but the quick fixes that the County proposes, which satisfies the State’s mandates but fails to supply the housing where it’s needed, are unacceptable. The low-income families that support our local tourist, service, and agriculture industries deserve better than that.
Village Centers and the Fiscalizaion of Land Use
One of the County’s quick-fix plans to solve the affordable housing crisis and bring in needed revenue is the cultivation of “Village Centers”—that is, building brand new towns in the middle of nowhere that includes mixed-use housing, commercial districts, and a hotel. “North Hills,” a proposed development in the hills south of Orcutt, fits that village concept. If approved it would have created 7500 new housing units on agricultrally-zoned land that also supports dozens of operating oil wells. SB CAN opposed the development of this project which threatens agriculture, contributes to urban sprawl, and creates safety hazards. That development is now on hold, but plans for new “villages” are popping up all over the county, including a proposed development east of Lompoc and another east of Santa Maria. Creating urban sprawl and threatening agricultural resources is not the way to solve a housing crisis or pad the county coffers.
Finding Common Ground
In 2007 SB CAN joined with other environmental organizations and developers to create a Common Grounds Coalition in Santa Barbara. Since then we have been working to create sound policy for increasing affordable and workforce housing in the south, near job and transportation centers.
