We are local architects, designers and planners who have spent much of our professional lives in Santa Barbara. We cherish Santa Barbara and support the creation of multifamily housing to meet our needs.
Unfortunately, the timing of approval of the City of Santa Barbara’s Housing Element allowed an out-of-town developer to submit two enormous housing projects under the California builder’s remedy law that are completely out of scale with their settings and our town.
The builder’s remedy law allowed the developers to bypass local zoning and public review because the city lacked a certified housing element at the time…