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A Santa Barbara Grand Jury, a group of 19 volunteers tasked with providing government oversight, issued a report in June that focused on three specific findings to correct the lack of sufficient South Coast housing. The report pointed out that county- and city-owned public land should be identified for housing, the permit process is too complicated, and affordable housing needs more funding. On Tuesday, the county’s Board of Supervisors agreed. But staff said many of the recommendations were already being practiced and others didn’t fit with the county’s internal structure.
Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said, “Every single jurisdiction should be doing an assessment of their underutilized land for housing because it’s that important and an obvious solution to start with.”
The county says it has already identified publicly owned properties buildable for affordable housing and has invited public and private developers to build the affordable housing there.
Initially, county staff partially disagreed that it is time consuming to get affordable housing permits, as the county had implemented state laws meant to streamline the development process and boost the amount of housing.
But 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson said that he agreed that getting affordable housing built cost too much, took too much time, and was complicated. The Board of Supervisors voted to change the county’s response to “agree.”
To address this problem, the Grand Jury recommended the county and South Coast cities create a job where one person helps get affordable housing projects through the application process. Planning Director Lisa Plowman said the county didn’t plan to make this role, as county planners currently manage the process; a position like this would be redundant.
But Supervisor Nelson said that he supported the idea of creating a job position for a navigator for these projects and that a facilitator that doesn’t work for any other department is important to moving the process along.
The supervisors did not, ultimately, direct planning staff to create this position.
In regard to the lack of funding for affordable housing, ”The Grand Jury, to some extent, states the obvious,” said Community Services Director Jesús Armas. Both the supervisors and county staff agreed with the Grand Jury’s claim.
But county staff said the county already had an internal fund directed toward the county’s housing trust fund and recommended against forming another one. Of the Grand Jury’s recommendation that the supervisors and local city councils promote outside contributions to their housing trust funds, county staff said they planned to implement this recommendation in the future.
Alongside the need for affordable housing, attorney Marc Chytilo gave public comment on the importance of public open space:
“We have got to make sure we preserve enough recreational resources to meet the needs of those additional communities,” he said. Open spaces can be a target for development because they are cheaper, but these spaces provide high biological and recreational value.
