La Cumbre Plaza Pitched as 1,900-Unit Housing-Crisis Savior
Santa Barbara City Council Reviews First Draft of Housing Element as It Stares Down Barrel of 8,001-Unit Quota
The City of Santa Barbara was forced to reckon with its own reality with the upcoming Housing Element, where it would have to prove it could meet the state’s Regional Needs Housing Allocation (RHNA) number of 8,001 units by 2031. Part of its plan to fulfill that quota, as revealed in the first draft of the Housing Element presented to the City Council on Tuesday, is a reenvisioned version of La Cumbre Plaza as a 1,900-unit housing juggernaut.
While Santa Barbara has done an adequate job of building “above-moderate-income” housing in the previous eight-year cycle (2015-2022), it has failed to come close to providing enough affordable housing for residents, and city leadership used this upcoming cycle as an opportunity to address what it had missed the last time.
The city’s Planning Commission had the chance to review and comment on the draft Housing Element two weeks ago, and on Tuesday, City Planner Rosie Dyste presented the first draft — which is due to undergo a 90-day review with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) from August to November — to the City Council for comments. But as the draft Housing Element takes shape, it has become clear that city staff, residents, and leadership at every level agree that Santa Barbara needs a specific plan to tackle a severe lack of affordable housing.
