How SB’s Most up-to-date Rental Enhancement Scheme Could Remake Downtown into a Canyon of Tall Properties
By Jerry Roberts of Newsmakers
Sheila Lodge wrote the e book — literally — about the historical past of setting up policy in Santa Barbara, and she won’t mince terms about the latest vivid strategy right before Metropolis Council to tackle our alleged “housing disaster.”
The proposal, tagged with the beguiling identify “Flooring Place Ratio” (Considerably), suggests the longtime Arranging Commissioner and former Mayor, “ought to be dropped.”
Plan wonk, city organizing writer and Pearl Chase successor, Commissioner Lodge responded in a Newsmakers job interview to the present-day Metropolis Hall debate more than Far, an abstruse but vastly consequential strategy to spur construction of rental housing, being pushed by architects, builders and a couple of professional-enhancement council members.
As Josh Molina and Nick Welsh both equally have described, the discussion has been put on hold pending a ….wait for it…new consultant’s report about possibilities for in which and how to construct residences and condos that the middle course – think teachers, cops and firefighters – truly can afford.
Sheila, wielding Precise Details, figures and the fundamentals of source and demand from customers, not to point out the guidelines of arithmetic, helps make a persuasive case that substituting these a system — in which constructing dimensions replaces the quantity of units as the essential criteria in approval of multi-device developments – not only would fail to meet the goals of churning out “inexpensive” housing but also pave the way for 60-foot properties that might sign the conclusion of Santa Barbara’s one of a kind and meticulously curated little town allure, layout and aesthetic.
In our discussion, Lodge details to Santa Barbara’s large building prices — three situations the statewide per sq. foot normal — offers a precise and favorable accounting of the present-day pro-rental advancement plan — which is the AUD, not the ADU, for individuals trying to retain their acronyms straight — and delivers historical point of view of how the city’s housing debate has been underway for around a century — her trim but indispensable volume “Santa Barbara: An Uncommonplace American City/How Thoughtful Arranging Formed a Metropolis” should really be essential reading for any person feeling the will need to opine publicly on the difficulty.
Together the way, she also delivers some intriguing political observations — including her endorsements for Mayor and Council (spoiler inform: it’s Randy and Kristen).
Check out our conversation with Sheila Lodge by means of YouTube down below or by clicking by this backlink. The podcast edition is listed here.
