Santa Barbara’s State Street Master Plan Comes into Focus, Without Return of Cars

The State Street Master Plan is on the road to success after the Santa Barbara City Council approved the latest version of the proposal in a milestone hearing on Tuesday, marking a major step forward for a flexible, pedestrian-focused plan that has been years in the making.

At the end of a seven-hour council hearing, it was clear that the majority of council — with the exception of Mayor Randy Rowse — was in favor of moving forward with more-refined master plan created by renowned urbanist Stefanos Polyzoides, who worked closely with State Street Master Planner Tess Harris and city staff to distill the years of public meetings, community input, and previous council direction into a Santa Barbara–specific “flex street” orientation with retractable bollards to allow access for emergency and service vehicles.

The only major change made by council was to remove the proposal to retract the bollards daily to allow private vehicle access from the hours of 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. After receiving a wave of concerns about potentially introducing late-night drivers onto State Street, the council decided to take the provision out of the language of the plan.

Polyzoides and Harris managed to convert years of previous input into a tangible plan that took into account not only the post-pandemic State Street planning effort, but the decades of city planning decisions that have led the city to its current downtown layout. Their presentation at Tuesday’s hearing laid out a vision that won support of councilmembers, pedestrian and bicycle advocates, and some residents who had criticized earlier versions of the plan.

Harris acknowledged the heated debate at previous hearings between community members who wanted a pedestrian-focused downtown and those who wanted to bring cars back to State Street. 

“People don’t argue this much about a place they’ve given up on,” Harris said.

Harris and Polyzoides argued that the newest plan should be seen as the next step in the city’s long history of bringing more people downtown, building on the 1964 general plan, the 1969 streetscape improvement, and expansion of the business improvement district — all of which worked to slowly make State Street a more pedestrian-friendly experience.

Polyzoides said Santa Barbara’s decision to remove all parking from the right-of-way to build off-street lots for all of downtown was a revolutionary step to center pedestrians. The downtown also has a unique “butterfly pattern” layout, he said, that funnels bicyclists toward State Street, where there is a much higher concentration of bicycles than other California cities.

These decisions all led to the current state of downtown, he said, where pedestrians and bicyclists create an organic vibrancy that helped the city survive through major challenges like the pandemic and the rise of e-commerce.

“I think the decision to go in this direction is an acknowledgment of the functional complexity of this place,” Polyzoides said.

The city received more than 600 public comments prior to the April 28 hearing, and nearly 40 community members showed up to speak.

While there were still a few speakers asking for the return of cars to State Street, the overwhelming majority of commenters found common ground in support of the plan. These supporters included representatives from Strong Towns Santa Barbara, Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association, Visit Santa Barbara, and the South Coast Chamber of Commerce.

The chief concern among the public was the proposal to retract bollards daily to allow private vehicles to access State Street from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. Community members shared concerns with the prospect of drunk drivers and inebriated pedestrians sharing a street in the late hours of the night.

“I’m really worried about what happens when the bars close,” said Santa Barbara resident Kenneth Smith.

Councilmember Kristen Sneddon shared the same concerns and questioned whether the proposal for overnight traffic was necessary for the success of the plan.

“I haven’t seen anywhere the call to have private vehicles specifically,” Councilmember Sneddon said, “even in our public comments today, our hundreds of emails, and the public outreach. I’m not sure we need to be going there.”

While there was general support for the plan, there are still major considerations to be made regarding the cost of the project — which could run anywhere from $48 million to $64 million — and the lack of housing in the downtown area. There are currently just 350 units downtown, and the city is hoping to find ways to incentivize development to bring anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 new units to the area.

“If we don’t have the housing component being fast-tracked like this, then the vitality and the economics behind the promenade won’t work, because you won’t have that economic driver,” Councilmember Eric Friedman said.

Mayor Rowse was the sole dissenting voice in the discussion about the new plan. Rowse said he felt that the issue had devolved into a “binary conversation” and left the current downtown in “status quo” since it was closed during the pandemic.

“What I’m afraid of doing is spending a whole lot of money making a really pretty version of what we’ve got,” Mayor Rowse said.

In a series of votes, mostly 6-1 with Mayor Rowse dissenting, the council decided to move forward with the general vision, design approach, and plan to bring more housing downtown. The council removed the proposal to allow private vehicles, and asked that the plan include a special design feature for the Central Business District.

The current draft will be available for public review through July, and will be presented at multiple review boards over the next two months. The plan is not finalized, and will be subject to council and commission direction before adoption.

The entire draft and information about the planning process is available at statestreet.santabarbaraca.gov.