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At a time when the city of Santa Barbara faces one of the worst economic challenges in its history, the architects made a presentation to city council on Thursday to talk about their vision for downtown.
The Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Institute of Architects presented a presentation featuring ideas for housing, walking trails, a downtown linear park, events, arts, concerts and a general utopia about what Santa Barbara could look like if everyone worked together.
“I think we all feel somehow the weight of this moment, the importance of the year ahead and all the decisions that we are going to make for our city, as well as the consequent nature of this time in which we find ourselves. , ”Advisor Meagan Harmon said. “We now have the opportunity to implement transformational change that will affect the future of our city for generations to come.
The AIA-SB organized a multi-day “charrette”, a French word for an intense collaborative session, where more than 160 volunteers formed teams to study State Street. Different teams 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, which would raise funds for events, capital improvements and programs.
The architects have put together a 330-page book of their findings.
“These are ideas,” said architect Detty Peikert. “They aim to inspire and encourage people to explore, to define this vision for the future of downtown and State Street.”
The city took no action, mainly at the request of city attorney Ariel Calonne, who reminded council that only a presentation – not a discussion – was on the agenda for Thursday’s special meeting of 16 hours.
The city plans to launch a website soon that will provide information on housing options in the city center, which is another goal of the architects.
The group is studying the adaptive reuse of existing buildings as well as the opportunities to build on open car parks.
Nina Johnson, assistant to the city administrator, started the discussion, mixing optimism and current reality.
“We come to you at a time of tremendous opportunity and challenge,” Johnson said. “It is a very difficult time with the pandemic and the stay at home order in place. Businesses are in a very difficult situation to make ends meet.”
Jim Knell, founder of SIMA Corp. and city critic, spoke at the meeting.
“You can’t help but feel excited, but at the same time, I’m disappointed with our current situation,” Knell said.
He said there were over 60 vacant units between Highway 101 and Sola Street.
“When you talk about a partnership with the city and the stakeholders, I think you jump the gun,” he said. “Many owners have lost faith in the city and the process, especially when you look at the status of State Street now.”
Knell said the affordable housing economy was not working in downtown Santa Barbara. He also said the city might assume it had owner buy-in when it didn’t.
“State Street has changed dramatically over the past three years, and most are for the worse,” Knell said.
Councilor Alejandra Gutierrez said she was optimistic.
“As a city, we need to start thinking outside the box and working with nonprofits and private funders to fund an idea like this and future ideas to improve the community,” he said. she declared.
– Joshua Molina, writer of Noozhawk, can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to display this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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