Santa Barbara Supervisors Approve Isla Vista Housing Project After Dinner-Hour Revisions 

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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On Tuesday evening, 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps said the board was seeing compromises being made before their eyes. Project agent Lonny Roy had spent the dinner hour working with county staff and counsel to create a revised project description for a pair of three-story buildings proposed in Isla Vista — one that reflected a compromise the developers and neighbors made to add more parking to the controversial project. The supervisors approved it unanimously. 

“This was a win for everyone,” said longtime Isla Vista local Pegeen Soutar, who had appealed the originally approved project, later adding, “the project will provide more housing for Isla Vistans with 50 percent more parking than originally proposed. It was a creative and cooperative solution.” 

The Project 

The project, headed up by developer Ed St. George and Mission Isla Vista, a Christian organization run by Jason and Holly Lomelino, originally proposed a trio of three-story buildings on Sueno Road in Isla Vista. That project included four units marked as affordable. State housing laws mandated that, because of this affordable status, Santa Barbara County could only have five hearings to evaluate it. The county could only disapprove it if it posed unmitigable health and safety issues. 

Both the project that came before the supervisors on Tuesday and the revised project the supervisors approved will include 16 total units: three two-bedroom units and 13 three-bedroom units. The project initially proposed 24 parking spaces, while the revised, approved project proposes 36. Legally, because the project is within ½ mile of a major transit station (located on El Colegio), it did not need to provide any parking spaces. Because the majority of Isla Vista residents are students who share rooms, it’s reasonable to assume the building could contain at around 100 people. 

The project is located in the western portion of Isla Vista, an area populated with single-family homes; many house groups of students although some belong to longtime homeowners. Here, as in all of I.V., cars regularly line the street. Public commenters told both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors that they sometimes block driveways and red curbs. A parking study done in partnership with the Isla Vista Community Services District and Dixon Resources Unlimited, a consulting firm, found that street parking regularly exceeded 100 percent capacity. 

The Timeline 

Hearing one: On February 26, the project’s agent, Lonny Roy, presented the project to Santa Barbara County’s Planning Commission. At that hearing, several longtime Isla Vista residents said, through both letters and verbal testimony, that the project would not only stick out in the neighborhood due to its size and scale but that it would add more cars to the area’s already heavily impacted streets. At this meeting, the planning commissioners voted to revisit the project. Then-Chair Laura Bridely asked that the developers voluntarily go before the South County Board of Architectural Review (SBAR). At that meeting, Roy agreed. 

The planning commissioners also discussed how this project was a “harbinger” of what was to come. At that time, there were seven total projects with affordable housing proposed in Isla Vista. All of them allow for increased density. 

Hearing Two: On March 21, Santa Barbara’s SBAR got a chance to weigh in on the project. Roy presented an alternative proposal that made changes based on the commissioners’ comments, including design changes to make the buildings look smaller. SBAR gave more feedback, including more ways to help break up the mass of the building. 

Again, neighbors raised concerns about the project’s mass and parking impacts. 

Hearing Three: On April 2, Roy once again came before the Planning Commission. The commission ultimately approved the project, although commissioners said they were concerned at the project’s impact on cars in the neighborhood. 

Jon and Pegeen Soutar, who have lived in Isla Vista for more than 40 years, filed an appeal against the project on April 14. Pegeen Soutar served on I.V.’s park board for decades, and both Soutars are active in their neighborhood community. The appeal argued that, given that more than 40 other projects and ADUs were ongoing in Isla Vista, and parking conditions were already dangerous, the project would exacerbate an already dangerous situation. 

Hearing Four: The Board of Supervisors first heard this appeal on September 9. Isla Vista’s parking problem — and its health and safety impact— took center stage, with Supervisor Joan Hartmann saying there was “no way in hell” she could support the project as it stood. Supervisor Capps, whose 2nd District includes I.V., had called on the development team to try to work toward a parking solution before they returned for a fifth appeal hearing. 

Over the next several months, project agent Roy and the Soutars met several times before reaching a compromise: designing the project into two buildings with a courtyard and providing 36 parking spaces in the rear of the building. The number of units –16 – remained. There was not enough time, however, for the planning department to re-evaluate the project before the final hearing. 

At the December 9 hearing, Planning Director Lisa Plowman said that the project had a “brand-new design” and would have to go back before the Planning Commission. 

“All the departments are going to have to look at it to verify that it meets the standards, ” she said.

Plowman estimated that would take about four months. 

Project developer Roy said that waiting this time was a major risk for the developer — more delays, or another appeal, could hold the project up further and mean another school year would pass before it opened. 

Supervisor Capps said that at the end of the last hearing, she was not optimistic that negotiations would produce much, but to her surprise, they did. 

“In fact, there’s an alternative plan here that, as stated, provides 50 percent more parking,” she said, later adding, “And so, now we have a process problem.” 

Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said it was ridiculous that the five-hearing limit prevented the supervisors from voting on that new project even though the developers and neighbors had reached an agreement. 

The Board of Supervisors could, in a roundabout way, approve a new plan if a revised project description was put before them on that day, County Counsel said. 

Around 5:45 p.m., the supervisors paused the hearing and addressed other agenda items so Roy and the county could write up the revised project plan to submit. It later finished as the final item on the agenda, around 7 p.m. 

“It’s a big leap of faith for everyone here, but we’re happy to take that leap with everyone,” Roy said. 

“[It’s] in the spirit of Isla Vista,” Supervisor Capps added. 
After the meeting, County Planning Director Lisa Plowman told the Independent that technically, the supervisors approved the original project with a change to the project description. That change requires the developers to modify the approved project such that it aligns with the alternative proposal. The planning department must also find that the proposed alternative meets county standards — adequate fire access, for example.