Fate of Figs Hangs in Balance on Santa Barbara’s Eastside

The fate of 13 trees on North Milpas Street, including eight Indian laurel fig trees that rise 60 feet above the sidewalks, providing shade and a slice of nature, will be decided on Wednesday, January 29, when the City of Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Commission considers a request to remove them.

If approved, the request from transportation planners would be an initial step in a long-awaited safety upgrade of 11 North Milpas intersections between Quinientos and Canon Perdido Streets.

According to Santa Barbara City Project Planner Michelle Bedard, the improvements will include curb extensions, which will push the sidewalk an average of five feet into the road at each crossing corner, as well as meridians and flashing Rapid Rectangular Beacons (RRB) in crosswalks that lack a traffic light.

“If [the curb is] farther out, you as a pedestrian have a shorter distance to cross in the actual vehicle roadway and then you are also granting more visual sightlines to both the pedestrians and the drivers,” Bedard said.

Just outside Tacos Pipeye, at the corner of Jennings and N. Milpas, one of the Indian laurel figs (ficus macrocarpa) proposed for removal rises from a patch of dirt that’s inches back from the curb. Because its trunk has an 11-foot circumference, a pedestrian must lean into the street or step into the parking lane to know if it’s safe to cross. For cars wanting to turn right onto Milpas from Jennings Avenue, it’s even trickier. 

“I’d rather have people be safe than have a nice tree here,” said a young man who lives nearby as he looked up into the foliage. He said he hears the sound of near misses at that corner all the time.

Nathan Slack, urban forest supervisor at the city, said the Indian laurels were likely planted along Milpas in the ’50s and ’60s. Initially they were supposed to be trimmed like topiaries in the shape of lollipops, but the practice wasn’t kept up.

Meanwhile, the cars have kept coming. Between 2010 and 2024, there were 41 pedestrian-vehicle collisions between Quinientos and Canon Perdido, one of which was fatal, four of which caused serious injuries, said Principal Traffic Engineer Derrick Bailey. There were 44 collisions between cyclists and vehicles in that time as well, one of which killed the cyclist and four resulted in serious injuries.

As many as 20 thousand vehicles pass through the intersection of Quinientos and Milpas each day, said Bailey. North Milpas is now the second most dangerous street in the city, just behind State Street between Gutierrez and Yanonali.

“There’s been some long-standing frustrations that the Eastside community has had with traffic safety on Milpas Street, and it bubbles up at various times,” said Bailey.

Maybe the most intense of those times was in 2011, after 15-year-old Sergio Romero was hit and killed by a truck as he crossed N. Milpas at Ortega. North Milpas was two lanes in both directions then. “One driver stopped [for Sergio] and another whipped around and they were going way, way too fast. It was awful,” Bailey said.

The incident led to a series of community meetings in which residents argued fiercely for stoplights at both Ortega and Yanonali Streets. That didn’t happen, but that section of Milpas was put on what’s known as a “road diet,” where traffic is slowed by limiting cars to a single lane in each direction.

Three of the Indian laurels are proposed for removal because their huge trunks obstruct the view of oncoming cars for pedestrians and cyclists, and the view of pedestrians and cyclists for cars. Five others are on the chopping block because either their roots or girth has made a patch of sidewalk inaccessible to people in wheelchairs and the visually impaired. Bringing the sidewalks up to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards is another element of the upgrade. The other five trees — four New Zealand Christmas trees and a Brisbane Box — are growing in an area where a curb extension will be built.

The good news is that the revamp will create opportunities for 37 new trees to be planted.

“We also love our trees and want to have beautiful aesthetics on the street,” Bedard said. “This is a very important community thoroughfare. But we also want to [work on] the safety component as well.

The Parks & Recreation Commission meets this Wednesday, January 29, at 4 p.m. at City Hall (735 Anacapa St.).