Dear City of Santa Barbara:
The Citizens Planning Association has been advocating for good planning in Santa Barbara County since 1960. Over the past 65 years, CPA has stood for safe planning that meets the needs of our community. The proposed project at 1609 Grand Avenue consists of a proposed 53-unit, 6-story apartment building on the Lower Riviera, at 1609 Grand Avenue. The access to the proposed 2-story parking garage underlying the apartments is on California Street.
Both California Street and Grand Avenue are narrow, substandard streets. They clearly cannot handle the proposed quantity of new traffic.
Our members regularly travel along Grand Avenue and on to California Street. As it is now, it is not possible for two opposing cars to use the streets at once. On both Grand and California, one car must pause to the side to allow an oncoming one to pass; this often sets up a situation where one car must back up in a travel lane in order to pull aside. We encourage the City to assess the effects of the additional traffic burden on our old, steep, narrow streets and perform a proper environmental review.
Fire Hazards & Public Safety. Grand Avenue and California Street are routes that residents of the adjacent high-fire and very-high-fire risk areas of Santa Barbara’s Riviera and Mission Canyon, must take in the event of a wildfire evacuation. This concern is not hypothetical. As we know from recent fire tragedies, we will have future emergencies, also. We concerned that the project as proposed would create a dangerous bottleneck, trapping evacuees in their cars, as they were on the narrow roads in Pacific Palisades. Again, we believe the City must require an evaluation of this likely impact and any possible mitigations.
Construction Impacts/Noise: The site of the project is an established residential neighborhood. The project proposes 2-stories of underground parking. We understand that this would require more than 400 truckloads of dirt removal even before actual construction could begin. In addition to exacerbating the traffic situation, the trucks and construction will likely disrupt the ability of the neighbors to conduct their normal day-to-day activities because of the noise. This is another impact the City should require the developer to address.
Stormwater runoff and drainage also needs to be studied on this steep hillside.
CPA believes in full disclosure. It makes no sense that the actual plans are not available to the public! While CPA understands copyright issues, this is a major project, and the public has a right to know what is proposed. So, although CPA does not know what the proposed design of the apartment building is, we do know that its size, bulk and scale are incompatible with the look of the neighborhood, and certainly exceeds the city’s height standards developed in order to protect views of our natural setting. The proposed structure would loom over its neighbors and dramatically change the look of the City from almost every area of the downtown and Riviera. The City is known now for its beauty, and we believe the City must require the developer to evaluate its proposal to ensure that its project does no damage to that aspect of the City’s reputation.
Thank you for considering our concerns. CPA will continue to follow news and announcements of the project. Please add CPA to any notice lists.
Thank you,
Marrell Brooks
for Citizens Planning Association