Santa Barbara’s 1960s Highrise Battle
**Events may have been canceled or postponed. Please contact the venue to confirm the event.
Date & Time
Thu, May 21 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Address (map)
229 E. Victoria Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Venue (website)
Architecture Foundation of S.B.
AFSB Spring 2026 Lecture Series
Cheri Rae: Santa Barbara’s 1960s Highrise Battle, What Would Pearl Chase Do Now?
Please join us for a lively discussion about how balanced housing development was achieved in the 1960s and can inspire ways to move forward today in a Santa Barbara way.
Back in the late 1960s, a 9-story 107-foot, two-tower condominium project along the El Mirasol block was proposed – and approved by Santa Barbara City Council – that would have changed Santa Barbara forever.
Thankfully, Pearl Chase was the leader of the Santa Barbara community activists who organized, raised funds, and successfully sued the City to prevent the outsized proposal.
The positive impact of that grassroots campaign led to a ballot measure that instituted height limits in Santa Barbara, and the site for the proposed towers became Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a lush garden with walking paths, benches, gazebo and pond, often referred to as the “crown jewel” of Santa Barbara’s city parks.
That was what Pearl did then to “Save Our City.”
But what would Pearl do now? And how do we follow in her footsteps?
Today, we are faced with similar issues of overdevelopment and can learn from the experience of the past. Recently enacted California housing laws streamline development by limiting local discretion, reducing community input, and enabling taller, denser projects near transit. By limiting local control, these measures are enabling developers to propose out-of-scale projects (in areas not designated for the scale), which is causing great community concern.
Cheri Rae, Santa Barbara Preservation Activist, Author, and overall prolific writer will discuss the 1960s era Save Our City community initiative “to keep Santa Barbara Santa Barbara,” followed by an audience Q&A and refreshments on the patio.
Cheri Rae is an ardent civic activist, award-winning columnist, and author of more than 300 articles and commentaries about Santa Barbara. “Channeling her inner Pearl,” Cheri has led efforts to preserve the city’s Bungalow Haven Neighborhood, historic buildings and trees. She is the author of the biography, “A String of Pearls: Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara.”
