State Street to Remain Closed to Cars Leading up to Potential Referendum

Santa Barbara City Council voted 5-1-1 to approve an urgency order extending the current status of State Street, deciding to leave the downtown strip mostly closed to cars in the time leading up to the potential ballot referendum next year, which could be in front of city voters for a special election as soon as next year.

The current configuration of State Street, first approved in 2020, has been the subject of much debate in the community. The City Council has taken multiple legislative actions keeping the street closed to car traffic, but every step of the way, the city has been met with pushback from downtown business owners and city residents who have called for City Council to revert State Street to its pre-pandemic, two-way-traffic designation.

After the recent approval of the State Street Master Plan in September, which included an extension of the Title 31 legislation keeping the street closed during the interim period, a group led by one of downtown’s largest property owners, Jim Knell of SIMA Corporation, launched a referendum seeking to force the City Council to repeal the decision or send the matter to the ballot. After three weeks, the petition reached the minimum of at least 5,500 signatures and was submitted to the county elections office, which is currently verifying the signatures to certify the referendum.

The referendum is one of two petitions filed against the City Council regarding recent actions. The other petition challenges the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, passed after a similarly polarized planning cycle. The petitions are forcing the city to pause on programs that have been in planning for years, and the city is facing threats of potential litigation based on its response to the challenges.

This week, attorneys representing the group behind the State Street petition filed a letter threatening litigation if the city does not reopen the street in the months leading up to the potential special election vote. On Tuesday, Stata Street Master Planner Tess Harris and City Attorney John Doimas laid out the argument to keep the street closed as it is, preserving the status quo and preventing the need for the city to spend more than a $1 million to physically reopen the street on such short notice.

If the city were to reopen the street in the interim, it would require restriping, pavement work (which would require an additional surface treatment before next summer), and the refund of the $100,000 grant the city received for its downtown sidewalk mural, since the money is contingent on the mural staying in place for the next several years.

Doimas explained that the city was in a sticky situation, either having to spend extra money to reopen the street to appease the business owners or leaving the street as is and risking litigation from the group. The simpler option, he said, is to preserve the status quo and leave the street closed. There would still be risk, but the city had a defensible position that has succeeded in previous cases.

“We are simply asking to keep things exactly how they are now, how they have been for the past six years,” Doimas said.

To extend the current status, the City Council needed five votes to approve an urgency ordinance. The motion earned support, despite concerns raised by Councilmember Meagan Harmon and Mike Jordan, who both voted in favor but were critical of the city’s planning process.

“There are no good choices tonight, and I’m very disappointed to be in this position,” Councilmember Harmon said.

Harmon and Jordan joined councilmembers Kristen Sneddon, Oscar Gutierrez, and Wendy Santamaria in supporting the temporary extension. Councilmember Eric Friedman abstained from the vote, saying that the council had “multiple times to avoid this outcome.” Mayor Randy Rowse, who has been consistently against the closed street, also voted no and said the referendum was the city’s own doing because “property owners have felt dismissed and unheard.”

Councilmember Sneddon pushed back on the idea that business owners were left out of the conversation, citing thousands of public comments and community outreach during the planning period: “We did listen to the community,” she said. “This had the most extensive public outreach ever.”