‘A doctor can’t find a place to live’

https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/wealthy-calif-town-housing-crisis-solution-19621663.php

FILE: A view of Santa Barbara, Calif.Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

By Andrew Pridgen, Central Coast Contributing Editor Aug 10, 2024

Santa Barbara has a housing problem — or rather, a growing set of problems due to lack of housing. Not having enough housing for individuals and families who, by definition, are on the lower end of the income spectrum is part of the issue. But even Santa Barbara residents whose households make or exceed the median income thresholds, sometimes by as much as 200%, can’t afford to live here.

In other words, the lower-, middle-, upper- and even upper-upper tiers of the working class are being squeezed out entirely. As a result, Santa Barbara’s housing issues have swelled to become endemic — a universal truth except for the very wealthiest.  

And that makes Santa Barbara’s housing problem everyone’s problem.

“It is urgent that we look at the supply side of housing now — there is that urgency,” Santa Barbara City Council member Eric Friedman told SFGATE this week.

What Friedman and other elected officials, along with the city and county, local businesses, and developers, have discovered over the past several months is the increasingly dire need for housing has forced all of the above to work more closely together.

A rendering of a proposed housing project at La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara, Calif. Courtesy Matthew Taylor

 It’s a seemingly simple but effective tactic that Santa Barbara residents are seeing unfold. If executed properly, the strategy could be a trendsetter, Friedman explained. “Other developers can look at this and see this is the path,” he said. “If all we’re building is market-rate housing, it’s not going to address the need. You end up changing the character of the community. You don’t get diversity; you get these high-end apartments that not many people can afford.”

Rent a 2-bedroom unit in Santa Barbara for $6,900 per month

The numbers to back up Friedman’s sentiment are staggering: “A 2023 survey by the city showed that the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $2,598 a month,” the Santa Barbara Independent reported last week. “The 78-unit apartment complex that will be opening at the former downtown Staples next month is currently being advertised with studio prices up to $3,500 a month, one-bedroom apartments going up to $4,100 a month, and two-bedroom units offered at monthly prices ranging from $5,500 to $6,900.”

The lack of affordable housing also impacts the people who already struggle the most: those who experience not only housing insecurity but discrimination as well. “In an environment where there are fewer affordable options, it is easier for protected classes to experience housing discrimination in the disguise of acceptable practices such as credit checks and income verifications,” a 2020 study for the city of Santa Barbara titled “Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice” stated. “In other words, in communities like Santa Barbara where demand for housing far outstrips supply, protected classes and other vulnerable populations are more likely to be turned away from housing through legitimate practices such as credit checks, preference for non-voucher renters and income checks.”

A rendering of a proposed housing project at La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara, Calif. Courtesy Matthew Taylor

All of this is why, Friedman said, so much time and energy is being invested in the potential development at the current site of the La Cumbre Plaza mall. The project, adjacent to upper State Street, in the heart of one of Santa Barbara’s busiest commercial corridors, is one Friedman believes can lead the way into what Santa Barbara will look and feel like for the century to come: “We’re trying to build a community,” he said, “and the kind of community we want.”

Local developers Jim Taylor and his son Matthew also believe they could be part of the long-term solution by building quality, desirable and affordable housing — and lots of it.

The pair bought the Macy’s department store building on the northeast portion of the La Cumbre Plaza mall site for $63 million in December 2021 and propose to build at least 642 units on the site, starting in 2028, when Macy’s lease expires.  

“We want more housing,” project developer Matthew Taylor told SFGATE this week. “We want our hometown to be nice. We want it to be accessible and not to ruin its feel.”

‘We have a problem’

While in favor of building much-needed housing in the district he represents, after attending a public workshop on the project in January, Friedman said he still felt there was more that could be done to ensure that these units are available to a bigger swath of Santa Barbara residents.  

He took matters into his own hands, enlisted the help of council member Mike Jordan, and reached out to the developers themselves.  

A rendering of a proposed housing project at La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara, Calif. Courtesy Matthew Taylor

 “It could be a model for the city and those watching what we do here,” Friedman explained. “We’re figuring out what’s the sweet spot for affordability. What’s the level of affordable here? The difference is between a workforce having a place to live and living in their vehicle or out on the streets. Then there’s the middle class that can afford high rents, but that’s all they can afford. That need is very high as well. These are all critical workers.”

The results thus far are encouraging, Jordan said. “This attacks the erosion of middle-income, workforce, essential housing that falls out of government subsidy zones,” Jordan told SFGATE this week. “We just don’t have problems with lower-income people being housing insecure, losing their place or on the threshold of living in their cars. We have a problem with workforce housing. We have a problem of keeping services in the city. There’s a problem when people who work and provide essential needs have to drive an hour or an hour and a half to work each day. It breaks down the whole dynamic of living and working and saving a family dynamic.”

‘We’re going to be on board’

The initial result of Friedman, Jordan and the Taylors’ efforts are reflected in a memo that the pair of council members wrote at the end of July. The memo requests that the city staff work expeditiously on getting a development agreement done. It’s a kind of symbolic gesture that signals all parties want to move through the bureaucratic red tape without delay, the council members and developer confirmed.

The Arlington and Granada theaters along State Street are viewed in this aerial photo on Feb. 23, 2018, in Santa Barbara, Calif. George Rose/Getty Images

 “There’s stuff we agree on,” Taylor explained, noting the spirit of the agreement is to continue to work together, not to attempt to sidestep any review process for the project. “There’s buy-in in the form of a shared vision. From our point of view, we need to provide what we’re required to provide by state law. But if the city and staff wants to take an entrepreneurial approach and do a deal and get a better deal for everyone, we’re going to be on board with that, and we’re going to cooperate with that.”

‘A lot of people care’

A better deal is exactly what Friedman and Jordan have in mind.  

After noting in February that the La Cumbre project “has some positives and also some challenges,” referring to the number of affordable units, Friedman especially started to push the developers for both more affordable housing units and more units that are affordable for the rest of Santa Barbara’s working class that earns up to 200% of the county’s median income.  

Their simple request has bumped up the number of potential affordable units from 54 to 100, Friedman said. Taylor confirmed that just having the ability to reach out and sit at the same table as city council members to hash out in clear language and with a clear plan for what’s needed really goes a long way toward all parties getting what they want.  

“They’re taking, I wouldn’t say a non-bureaucratic approach, but it’s a somewhat non-bureaucratic approach,” Taylor said. “This project is getting a lot of attention. A lot of people care. We have the benefit that a lot of people want to see housing happen — and we’re going to work to make sure it does.”

‘A doctor can’t find a place to live’

But the project still has a long way to go and many hoops to jump through and considerations along the way before it even breaks ground, all parties admit. For starters, there is some sentiment and historical value in what’s currently there.  

The building that houses Macy’s is notable. It was designed by famed architect William Pereira, best known for the Transamerica Pyramid and the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

FILE: Exterior of Macy’s in Santa Barbara, Calif., July 8, 2016. Michael L. via Yelp

 Over the years, the building, which combined striking multistory columns with a Spanish-tiled roof, drew in many shoppers and visitors to Santa Barbara as the shopping center’s focal point, becoming an indelible landmark in the seaside town.

At 31 acres (the proposed development will initially take up roughly 9 of the mall’s acres), La Cumbre Plaza’s footprint is also massive. Those who’ve lived in Santa Barbara long enough recall it as a high-end meetup spot that used to house high-end retailers and restaurants, including Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and a Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

But the mall site has seen better days. It was added to the town’s general plan in 2009 and included in the city’s 2023-2031 Housing Element Suitable Sites Inventory.

Public workshops have featured an array of voices, some of whom oppose the conversion of the mall into housing — whether it’s over nostalgia or concerns about the strain on resources in the neighborhood, including transit and schools. But the overwhelming recognition from those who call Santa Barbara home is that responsible, desirable and affordable housing, for now, is a top priority, council members Friedman and Jordan said.  

“A doctor can’t find a place to live,” Jordan said. “They can’t find an apartment to rent. It’s not even a price point; it’s half a percent of a vacancy rate.”

The phenomenon of pricing out a bigger and wealthier swath of the population, Jordan continued, is something he sees getting worse year after year. “You look up eventually — which people have been saying for decades — you have a wealthy community with a bunch of service personnel and nothing in the middle. And I tell you, the time thing is important too. If it can be done now, it needs to be done.”

‘What the market needs’

The project is massive. If all involved can pull it off, Friedman, Jordan and the Taylors all believe that it could be a model for others like it, not only in Santa Barbara but in the region and the state as well.  

A rendering of a proposed housing project at La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara, Calif. Courtesy Matthew Taylor

 “This is a complicated state and a complicated jurisdiction and city,” Taylor concluded, noting that nothing is a model for anyone until the project — which could cost hundreds of millions of dollars — is completed and ready for move-in. “But if we can do this for large-format projects that don’t fit the mold, I think it’s really appropriate; it’s great. I’d love to see this happen. There’s a bunch of properties scattered throughout California that this would work on as long as everybody can come to an agreement that this is what the market needs.”  

Aug 10, 2024

 Andrew Pridgen

Central Coast Contributing Editor

Andrew Pridgen is a contributing editor at SFGATE. He covers Central California. A Bay Area native, Pridgen lived in Lake Tahoe before moving to the Central Coast a decade ago.