The tricky task of adding landmass to a city involves multiple steps, among them the voice of the people, but on Tuesday night, the City of Goleta took one step toward expanding its borders. Well after the clock struck nine, a majority of the Goleta City Council voted to apply for a Sphere of Influence over farmland recently rezoned to high-density residential by Goleta’s neighbor — the County of Santa Barbara.
The city’s influence over these rectangular and L-shaped spheres, once they are built out, is limited to the services it would provide. For one of them, Glen Annie Golf Club, Councilmember Stuart Kasdin noted that the residents would have no choice but to use Goleta streets to go anywhere. The proposed projects are quite controversial for the consequences that will result from the development of thousands of homes on the outskirts of the city, but Goleta’s incremental action on Tuesday night was limited to the changes to the city’s General Plan map regarding services to the golf course and the farmland known as the South Patterson tracts.
The county converted these agricultural lands to residential purposes in 2024 in order to fulfill California’s housing quota through rezoning. Between 800 and 1,000 units of housing are projected for 94 acres at the golf course, while 64 acres remain zoned as agriculture. At South Patterson, more than 3,000 homes will go up across seven parcels that total 192 acres under the flight path of nearby Santa Barbara Municipal Airport. One of the parcels — the 65-acre Giorgi property — applied in 2023 through the builder’s remedy, which allows the development to avoid all but ministerial planning rules for the 1,096 proposed homes.
[Click to zoom] Goleta’s draft Sphere of Influence map showing the Glenn Annie Golf Course Area (left) and South Patterson Area (right). | Credit: City of Goleta…