City of Santa Barbara Wrestles with Plan for 443 Rental Units at La Cumbre Plaza

Planning Commission Raises Concerns About Lack of Affordable Housing, Impacts on Schools

Rendering of the proposed 443-unit development of the Sears property at La Cumbre Plaza | Credit: Kennedy Wilson

The second of two large-scale redevelopment projects proposed for La Cumbre Plaza — a plan to demolish the Sears location and build 443 units of rental housing — came before the City of Santa Barbara’s Planning Commission last week, where commissioners criticized the early conceptual plan for including only the bare minimum of 10 percent of units set aside as affordable, and for the planners’ lack of consideration with how the project would impact neighboring schools and connect with the 642-unit “State and Hope” development proposed for the Macy’s location on the other side of the shopping center.

While only a concept review of the proposed project, the hearing highlighted the uphill battle city review boards face with residential developments, specifically those that take advantage of state and local laws created to streamline review and make building multi-family housing easier for developers. In terms of the 443-unit development proposed for the Sears location, the applicant team from real estate firm Kennedy Wilson is looking to go through the city’s discretionary review process, limiting the ways review boards can change or deny a project that meets objective standards.

During the conceptual review on April 3, planning commissioners received a presentation from Kennedy Wilson’s senior vice president of entitlement and development, Dave Eadie, including conceptual drawings made by architect RC Alley.

According to the early designs, the 9.45-acre lot will become a collection of 36 studios, 183 one-bedroom, 201 two-bedroom, and 23 three-bedroom units across two Spanish Colonial–style buildings, along with a 10,000-square-foot “amenities” building, central courtyards, and a multi-use path along Arroyo Burro Creek. The site is on the southern side of the mall, encompassing the Sears building, auto shop, and lower-level parking lot stretching to Calle Real.

Architectural drawings showing details of the proposed 443-unit development at La Cumbre Plaza | Credit: Kennedy Wilson

The project falls under the city’s Average Unit-Size Density (AUD) incentive program, and because the developer is offering 10 percent, or 44 of the units for moderate-income households, the application will not require another discretionary approval from the Planning Commission.

Despite the project meeting minimum requirements for affordability, several commissioners expressed frustration with the process, with Vice Chair Lucille Boss commenting that “it doesn’t seem like anything else was considered in the efforts to develop more affordable housing.”

Boss also mentioned that the same Sears site was listed in the city’s housing element plan with a potential for up to 525 units, with at least 104 low-income and 131 moderate-income units. But with the actual project coming in with much fewer affordable units, the city would now have to identify additional sites to make up the shortfall.

“We keep seeing projects doing the bare minimum in terms of low and moderate,” Boss said. “I’m looking forward to housing being built here but really wish the applicant would consider additional affordable housing units.”

Commission Chair Devon Wardlow echoed the sentiment, and “respectfully urged” the developers to include additional affordable units, or at least a variation in income levels.

“I’m very disappointed as I think this is, yet again, another opportunity where we could get significant affordability,” Wardlow said.

According to Eadie, the development team “anticipated” questions regarding affordability, and he said they had decided to “stick to the game plan of staying with the city’s vision for the project” with just 10 percent moderate-income. “That’s the requirement, and we certainly intend to meet that,” Eadie said, “but going beyond that, there’s only so many things we can do.”

During public comment, Hope Elementary School District Superintendent Anne Hubbard raised concerns over the impacts on the neighboring schools, which now face the potential of thousands of new units of housing bringing hundreds of new schoolchildren to a district already near capacity. According to a housing impact report prepared by the district last year, the three schools in the district serve around 900 students annually; and with more than a dozen separate housing proposals in the pipeline that fall within the district boundaries, that could bring more than 2,000 units of housing with an estimated 500 extra students — an impact Hubbard said would require nearly 28 additional classrooms.

“When I look at these numbers, I have a lot of fear in my heart for what that’s going to mean for our school district,” Hubbard said. “With all the development happening within the little footprint of Hope School District, I’ve yet to really grasp how the school district will be supported.”

Developers said they had met with Hubbard and were willing to pay any development impact fees as required by the city, but Eadie did not mention any plans to go beyond compliance with city codes. “I don’t know if we can solve the world’s problems in the school districts,” Eadie said.

Side view of the proposed development at La Cumbre Plaza | Credit: Kennedy Wilson

Commissioner John Baucke brought up an issue he called the “elephant in the room”: Whether there was a plan to address the circulation and connections between the two big projects to be built on opposite sides of La Cumbre Plaza. “How are we going to get this all to work?” Commissioner Baucke asked. “I really am concerned this is going to be a disaster.”

Developers were unaware of a potential conflict Baucke raised between the Sears project and the State and Hope project developers’ plans for pedestrian access to State Street. Prior to the meeting, Graham Lyons, an attorney representing the State and Hope project, submitted a letter to the city saying that the owner of the Sears property would likely not be able to “hold any access rights” across the other project, and that “public access from State Street to the Sears project site will not be available through the State and Hope property.”

Commissioner Brian Barnwell, who also brought up issues regarding the developers circulation and access plans, expressed frustration with the fact that city review boards were under so many constraints with projects that may change the face of the city.

“It’s unfortunate that it isn’t being done the way we used to do things like this,” Barnwell said. “It truly, truly breaks my heart. We are the keepers of the flame and yet we cannot do that here, and it’s frustrating.”

Commissioners encouraged the developers to explore more architectural variation, move massing toward the center of the buildings, and to update the drawings to show the proposed structures in context of the surrounding areas. The board also encouraged more affordable housing, and urged the developers to coordinate with the State and Hope developers to work on a plan together.

After updating the project application, the developers can begin a formal review with the Architectural Board of Review.