At a time when the city of Santa Barbara is facing one of the worst economic challenges in its history, the architects made a presentation to the City Council on Thursday to talk about their vision of the city.
The Santa Barbara chapter of the American Institute of Architects featured a presentation highlighting ideas for housing, walkways, a linear park in the center, events, arts, concerts, and a general utopia for what Santa Barbara might look like if everyone worked together.
“I think we feel all the weight of this moment, the importance of the coming year and all the decisions we will make for our city and the consequence of this time we are in,” said councilor Meagan Harmon. “We now have the opportunity to truly embrace a transformative change that will influence the future of our city for future generations.”
AIA-SB organized a “charrette” of several days, a French word for an intense collaboration session, in which over 160 volunteers formed teams to study State Street. Various teams have studied ideas for squares, promenades and open spaces, and even redeveloping State Street into a linear park. There is also talk of creating a public-private partnership, such as a foundation, that would raise money for events, capital improvements and programming.
The architects developed a 330-page book with their discoveries.
“These are ideas,” said architect Detty Peikert. “They are meant to inspire and encourage people to explore, to define that vision for the future of the city and State Street.”
The city did not take any action, especially at the request of city lawyer Ariel Calonne, who reminded the council that only a presentation – not a discussion – was written on the agenda for Thursday’s special meeting at 4 p.m.
The city plans to launch a website soon that will provide information about accommodation possibilities in the city center, which is another goal of the architects.
The group is looking at adaptive reuse of existing buildings, as well as opportunities to build on open parking lots.
Nina Johnson, assistant to the city administrator, started the discussion, mixing optimism with the reality of the moment.
“We come to you at a time of great opportunity and challenge,” Johnson said. “It’s a very difficult time because of the pandemic and the state of the home. Businesses are in a very difficult place to achieve.”
Jim Knell, founder of SIMA Corp. and city critic, he spoke at the meeting.
“You can’t help but feel excited, but at the same time I’m disappointed with where we are now,” Knell said.
He said there are more than 60 job vacancies between Highway 101 and Sola Street.
“When you talk about a partnership with the city and the stakeholders, I think you jump with the gun,” he said. “Many homeowners have lost confidence in the city and in the process, especially when you look at the state of State Street now.”
Knell said the economy of affordable housing does not work in downtown Santa Barbara. He also said the city could assume it would be accepted from property owners when it does not.
“State Street has changed a lot in the last three years and most of it is bad,” Knell said.
Councilor Alejandra Gutierrez said she was optimistic.
“As a city, we need to start thinking outside the box and working with nonprofits and private funders to fund an idea like this and future ideas to improve the community,” she said.
– Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be contacted at . (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Sign in with Noozhawk on Facebook.