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Yahoo!The City of Santa Barbara is in the process of updating its general plan, a plan that charts the future development of the city. In the spring of this year, the Citizens Planning Association’s (CPA) General Plan Update Committee sent out a questionnaire to all CPA members seeking their preferences and opinions on the city’s future. The Allied Neighborhoods Association (Allied) also conducted a survey.
Some questions resulted in clear answers while others showed no real consensus. The first question asked in the CPA’s questionnaire was “What are Santa Barbara’s most important qualities?” Openness, views, and aesthetic qualities clearly topped the list.
One of Allied’s questions asked, “Of the following, which would you consider your highest priority concern?” Respondents ranked aesthetics (“small-town” atmosphere) highest, followed by safety, congestion, and housing, in that order.
CPA’s second question asked, “What are the most important planning issues?” Traffic congestion was first in importance followed by creek and ocean pollution. Allied posed a similar question in terms of priority ranking of city policies. Maintaining “small-town” qualities, continuing the aesthetic character, and alleviating traffic congestion were given the highest priorities by the neighborhood respondents, with affordable housing, shopping, cultural, employment, and tourist opportunities registering significantly lower.
CPA found no consensus on high-density housing downtown and along traffic corridors. A significant percentage was undecided. Some who supported the concept expected that high-density housing would have a “detrimental effect on the community.” Allied found increases in building and population to be viewed negatively. Three-fifths of those surveyed opposed city subsidies to promote increased “affordable” housing programs other than for very-low-income housing, and more than two-thirds did not believe the city can succeed in supplying a significant amount of additional affordable housing.
The great majority of CPA’s respondents found the current building height limits appropriate in residential zones, with the majority wanting to reduce them in industrial and commercial zones where four stories and up to 60 feet are permitted now. Allied’s survey similarly found strong support for continuing regulations on residential building heights and for lowering them in commercial areas.
Eighty-eight percent of CPA’s respondents supported the existing General Plan goals of living within our resources and maintaining the established character of the city. Allied found growth was the number-one concern and that there was strong support for regulating population increase if possible.
In spring 2007, as part of the General Plan Update, the City of Santa Barbara began a public outreach program to find out what issues matter most to the public. This has included workshops, meetings, and mailings with return comment cards, asking what people love about Santa Barbara. Again, the most common attributes mentioned include the small-town feel, diverse population, scenic beauty and views, historic character and neighborhoods, and the city’s vibrant and dynamic culture.
Participants were also concerned about too much growth and change. In particular, large projects are seen as detrimental to the city’s character and quality of life. Preservation of the city’s architectural heritage and aesthetic character was a frequently cited goal.
These two surveys and the City of Santa Barbara’s outreach efforts clearly show that Santa Barbarans want to preserve the small-town feel and the aesthetic qualities of the city. They are concerned about growth and its negative effects, and want to restrict it.
What matters most to you?
Go to youplansb.org. There you will find videos of meetings, reports on community input, and how you can participate. It is your community. Help plan its future!
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Judith Orias and Sheila Lodge clearly demonstrate the power of statistics to manipulate and deceive. They assert that their so-called survey shows that “Santa Barbarans want to preserve the small-town feel and the aesthetic qualities of the city. They are concerned about growth and … and want to restrict it.” In other words, Santa Barbarans are anti-growth and say to heck with its working population that certainly can’t afford a home in this crazy market. Supposedly we support no-growth regulations that severely limit the building of higher density, affordable green homes. However, the survey actually demonstrates only one thing: if you pick a small unrepresentative group, you can get your survey to say anything you want. First, the authors conveniently fail to mention the impressively small number of people actually participating in their straw poll. A summary of the survey posted on the city’ planning website suggests the number was about 120. Further inspection reveals that the self-selected group participating in the poll in no ways reflects the general make up of the city’s population. The vast majority (93%) were homeowners and elderly. So Lodge’s and Orias assertion that their poll represents the general desires of our community is a straight-forward twisting of the truth. Interestingly enough, the group’s survey that was posted on the city’s site offers a much more intelligent conclusion; this straw poll demonstrates the need for a more systematic scientific survey of the city’s population to ascertain its desire for future growth.
Web address for the survey:
http://www.youplansb.org/docManager/1000...
LeeKaplan (anonymous profile)
November 24, 2007 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Regarding the '"power of statistics to manipulate and deceive" in the above comment about "What Do Santa Barbarans Want for Their City?", the information given in the article was simply a report on surveys done by Allied Neighborhoods Association and Citizens Planning Association's General Plan Update Committee as well as the results of the City of Santa Barbara's outreach effort. The article looked at commonalities in all three.
The organizations are very well aware that the respondents to those surveys as well as the self-selected respondents to the city's outreach may not represent a broad cross-section of the city's residents. That is why both Allied and CPA's GPUC recommended to the City Council and the Planning Commission at their joint meeting on September 9th that the city have a professional survey done that carefully samples all segments of the community.
For information about Citizens Planning Association's housing position go to http://www.citizensplanning.org/CPAPosit...
sheilalodge (anonymous profile)
December 1, 2007 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Just because the survey methodology was sub optimal doesn't make the conclusion wrong. It simply shows the need, as former Mayor Lodge points out, for more study. I would venture to guess that the vast majority of Santa Barbara residents do not want big growth. How to reconcile the needs of our community for more housing and jobs and the desire to remain a desirable place to live is no easy job. I believe the Citizens Planning Association is doing an excellent job of advocating for sensible policies and they are not "only in it for the money", unlike so many of their opponents.
Noletaman (anonymous profile)
December 14, 2007 at 5:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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