At a time when the city of Santa Barbara is facing one of the worst economic challenges in its history, architects on Thursday made a submission to city council to talk about their vision for the city center.
The Santa Barbara chapter of the American Institute of Architects delivered a presentation outlining ideas for housing, sidewalks, a linear downtown park, events, art, concerts, and an overall utopia for what Santa Barbara might look like if everyone worked together.
“I think we all feel the weight of this moment, the importance of the coming year and all the decisions we are going to make for our city, and the consequent nature of this time in which we are,” the councilor said. Meagan Harmon said. “We now have an opportunity to introduce transformational changes that will impact the future of our city for future generations.”
The AIA-SB held a ‘charrette’ of many weeks, a French word for an intense collaboration session, where more than 160 volunteers formed teams to study State Street. Various teams have studied ideas for plazas, paseos and open spaces, and even redeveloped State Street into a linear park. There is also talk of creating a public-private partnership, such as a foundation, that will raise money for events, capital improvements and programming.
The architects compiled a 330-page book on their findings.
“These are ideas,” said architect Detty Peikert. “It’s meant to inspire and encourage people to explore, to define the vision for the future of downtown and State Street.”
The city did not act, mostly at the request of Ariel Calonne, city attorney, who reminded the council that only a submission – not a discussion – was written on the agenda for the special Thursday council meeting at 4 p.m.
The city plans to soon open a website that provides information on housing opportunities in the city center, which is another goal of the architects.
The group is looking at adaptable reuse of existing buildings as well as opportunities to build on open parking lots.
Nina Johnson, assistant to the city administrator, started the discussion and mixed optimism with the reality of the moment.
“We are coming to you in a time of tremendous opportunity and challenge,” Johnson said. “It’s a very challenging time because of the pandemic and the stay-at-home order that exists there. Businesses are in a very difficult place to end.”
Jim Knell, founder of SIMA Corp. and a critic of the city, spoke during the meeting.
“You can not help but feel excited, but at the same time I’m disappointed with where we are now,” Knell said.
He said there were more than 60 vacancies between 101 Highway and Sola Street.
“If you’re talking about a partnership with the city and stakeholders, I think you’re jumping the gun,” he said. “A lot of the property owners have lost confidence in the city and the process, especially if you look at State Street status now.”
Knell said the economy of affordable housing does not work in downtown Santa Barbara. He also said the city assumes it has a purchase from property owners if that is not the case.
“State Street has changed a lot over the last three years, and most of it is worse,” Knell said.
Councilor Alejandra Gutierrez said she was optimistic.
“As a city, we need to start thinking outside the box and work with non-profit organizations and private funders to fund an idea like this and future ideas to improve the community,” she said.
– Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Get in touch with Noozhawk on Facebook.