Barney’s On the Beat

By: Barney Brantingham

Pro-Growth City: If there’s any doubt that
Santa Barbara is a pro-development, go-go pro-growth town, check
the 5-2 vote to okay the Veronica Meadows home project. (Or, drive
along lower Chapala Street.) The City Council, after twice turning
up its collective nose at Mark Lee’s 52-home project on Las Positas
Road, liked it a lot last week. Even though Lee is now promising
two “affordable” units, critics term it “oversized homes for people
with oversized incomes,” in the words of The Independent’s Nick
Welsh.

Councilmember Brian Barnwell, one of the five voters, was so
excited that he ran around to the planning, parks and recreation,
and transportation staffs delivering donuts and leaving notes of
praise like this one: “Thank you, planning staff, for approval of
St. Francis and Veronica Meadows.” But then someone, identified to
me as a St. Francis opponent, happened to waltz into the planning
office and spotted the goodies and note.

This, she complained, was totally inappropriate. The staff, of
course, is supposed to be making fair analyses, not pushing for the
okay or denial of a project. I wonder if Barnwell would have been
sugaring up City Hall staffers if the Lee project had been denied.
When I talked to him, Barnwell conceded sheepishly that saying
“approval” was “a poor choice of words. It’s become Donut-Gate. I
just wanted to thank the staff for all their hard work.”

Actually, he said, “I have done it before.” But to some I’ve
heard from, the donuts symbolized sour suspicions that City Hall
leaned toward Cottage Hospital’s plan to condo-ize St. Francis.
Paul Casey, community development director, emailed the council:
“While we appreciate the gesture toward the hard work that planning
staff put into the projects (not the approvals per se), I can
assure you that a box of donuts does not sway our professional work
and extensive analysis of large, complicated, and controversial
projects put before all of you for a decision.”

Still, the Las Positas and St. Francis projects and
mega-buildings going up downtown — along with the Levy timeshares,
Fess Parker’s new hotel, major projects proposed on upper State
Street, and office buildings going up on the periphery of
downtown — point to a city government that favors development and
lots of it. And if the freeway gets even more clogged, so what?
Mayor Marty Blum could have voted against the Las Positas
annexation and killed the project but didn’t. As for the note, “If
that was the actual wording, I think it’s unfortunate,” she said.
“I cannot imagine a professional planner putting his or her
reputation on the line for a donut.”

The League of Women Voters, studying 11 new projects proposed on
upper State Street, warned that “excessively large projects could
destroy the very features the public likes about upper State
Street.” The currently required setbacks and landscaping in front
of buildings should be maintained and mountain views protected, the
league said.

The league cited the Sandman Inn project, where the old motel
would be demolished and replaced with a 112-room hotel and 77
condos. Across the street, where Circuit City is now located,
current buildings would be razed and replaced with a Whole Foods
market, commercial space, and 15 residential units. The Lofts
project near State Street and La Cumbre Plaza calls for three
commercial spaces, 34 market-rate one-bedroom units, and 10
affordable units, the league pointed out. “All these will add to
the present congestion on upper State Street,” the league said.

Greeting Cards: When a half-dozen or so small
businesses got letters from Wendy McCaw attorney Barry Cappello,
they weren’t holiday greetings. They were warnings that keeping
those “McCaw Obey the Law” signs in their windows could get them
more than rocks and coal in their Yule stockings. So, all but one
promptly took the posters down. But Highlights Hair Salon (160 W.
Alamar St.) pasted Cappello’s letter in the window and posted the
McCaw sign on the ceiling.

McCaw Sues Writer: Now that Wendy McCaw has
sued Susan Paterno, Chapman University’s director of journalism and
author of the recent “Santa Barbara Smackdown” article in the
American Journalism Review, there is speculation that California’s
anti-SLAPP law could apply. The Strategic Lawsuits Against Public
Participation (SLAPP) statute is aimed at stopping corporations,
powerful groups, or entities from silencing critics by filing
lawsuits of questionable merit. McCaw sued Paterno, not the
University of Maryland-owned AJR. Writers beware?

Randy’s Party: Tuesday night, folks from
various News-Press departments gathered at Harry’s Café to say
adios to 23-year NP chief financial officer Randy Alcorn, fired
recently in one of the frequent staff purges.

Oh, Rats! A rapt audience was at the Marjorie
Luke Theatre at Santa Barbara Junior High, watching All the
President’s Men, as President Nixon’s rats scurried across the
screen. Suddenly, scurrying across the darkened stage, outlined
against the screen, was the unmistakable profile of a real live
rat.

You can reach Barney at 965-5205 or via barney@independent.com. He also
writes a Tuesday online column at independent.com and Barney’s
Weekend Picks on Fridays.