The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara introduced plans to redevelop the Presidio Springs Community — an entire city block of affordable senior housing in the downtown area — with a multi-phase project that would more than double the number of available units over the next decade, bringing a total of 327 units when finished.
Presidio Springs, a collection of garden-style apartments built in the ’70s as one of the city’s first public housing developments, is already the Housing Authority’s largest property with 122 units. But the proposed plan would bring an additional 205 units to the site, replacing the outdated buildings with new larger structures in a phased construction plan intended to minimize disruption for current residents.
While the proposal is still in the early planning stages, the Housing Authority hosted a community meeting on March 26 to show the preliminary designs to the public. Housing Authority Director Rob Fredericks said he had already met with the residents to let them know about the plan and ensure that they knew they would be taken care of during the process.
He said the construction, which would be years in the future, would be organized so residents would be relocated into newer units as soon as they are built, with rents set at the same cost tenants currently pay, which is no more than 30 percent of their income.
“That’s very important to us,” Fredericks said. “Taking care of our current residents and ensuring that any temporary relocation is temporary, and all of the hassles of moving, we take care of that, both moving from and moving back.”
He said Presidio Springs is “beautiful but underutilized” given today’s density standards — especially for the downtown area — and that the project would address the increasing need for affordable senior housing. The Housing Authority already has a waiting list of more than 1,100 seniors, he said, and Santa Barbara’s senior population is expected to grow by 32 percent over the next 25 years.
Housing Authority Deputy Director Dale Fathe-Aazam said the plan will take “many years to be fully executed,” and even on an ambitious timeline would take at least a decade to construct. Architect Christine Pierron with Cearnal Collective showed a few early concept designs, which stayed true to the city’s Spanish Colonial style.
If a full design is completed on time, the first phase of the project could begin the city review process within the next two years. The Housing Authority would apply for low-income tax credits to fund the construction, which could cost around $600,000 per unit. The final phase would not be completed until at least 2034.
View the full presentation here.
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