Building Heights Ordinance (con't)
[ Excerpt from "City plans to create temporary building guidelines" BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND, April 22, 2008 ]
After a lengthy seesaw battle, Santa Barbara city leaders approved by a slim 4-3 margin a proposal to have the city’s Ordinance Committee draft temporary legislation to address concerns about the height, bulk and scale of recent building projects until the city’s General Plan update process is complete...
Councilmembers Das Williams, Helene Schneider and Iya Falcone, who brought the proposal to the council’s agenda, joined with Councilmember Grant House yesterday evening to vote in favor of drafting an interim ordinance.
“It’s moving in the right direction,” House said. “Is it all the way? No way.”
In contrast, Councilmember Dale Francisco called the proposal an “end-run” around the Plan Santa Barbara process and a failed attempt to head off the petition being circulated for signatures that would lower building height limits...
Schneider also called the proposed ballot initiative, organized by a group known as Save El Pueblo Viejo, an “end-run” around Plan Santa Barbara. She said while an interim ordinance is not an ideal situation, it is necessary given the context.
“Of course it’s not perfect,” she said, calling the ordinance language proposed yesterday evening a starting point...
Many in attendance, including several supporters of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative, also agreed that a citizen-led ballot initiative is too simplistic to address complex planning issues related to size, bulk and scale of buildings.
“The issues are so subtle that it’s somewhat ham-fisted to have a ballot initiative that just talks about height,” said Brian Barnwell, a former city councilmember and one of the organizers of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative.
Barnwell said the initiative has cachet because local residents lost faith in city leaders to take action on buildings they perceived to be inappropriately large and bulky. With a good interim ordinance, however, he said he would be willing to urge people to vote against the initiative, if it gathers the requisite number of signatures to appear on the ballot...
House, who appeared to waver back and forth on the merits of an interim ordinance, ultimately swung in favor of the proposal after Falcone and Williams agreed not to place a timeline on the process.
Williams said the intent is to use input from a current round of Plan Santa Barbara community workshops to build the temporary ordinance.
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For full text of the article, please go to:
SBDS: Temporary Building Guidelines
DAILY SOUND, April 22, 2008 ]
After a lengthy seesaw battle, Santa Barbara city leaders approved by a slim 4-3 margin a proposal to have the city’s Ordinance Committee draft temporary legislation to address concerns about the height, bulk and scale of recent building projects until the city’s General Plan update process is complete...
Councilmembers Das Williams, Helene Schneider and Iya Falcone, who brought the proposal to the council’s agenda, joined with Councilmember Grant House yesterday evening to vote in favor of drafting an interim ordinance.
“It’s moving in the right direction,” House said. “Is it all the way? No way.”
In contrast, Councilmember Dale Francisco called the proposal an “end-run” around the Plan Santa Barbara process and a failed attempt to head off the petition being circulated for signatures that would lower building height limits...
Schneider also called the proposed ballot initiative, organized by a group known as Save El Pueblo Viejo, an “end-run” around Plan Santa Barbara. She said while an interim ordinance is not an ideal situation, it is necessary given the context.
“Of course it’s not perfect,” she said, calling the ordinance language proposed yesterday evening a starting point...
Many in attendance, including several supporters of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative, also agreed that a citizen-led ballot initiative is too simplistic to address complex planning issues related to size, bulk and scale of buildings.
“The issues are so subtle that it’s somewhat ham-fisted to have a ballot initiative that just talks about height,” said Brian Barnwell, a former city councilmember and one of the organizers of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative.
Barnwell said the initiative has cachet because local residents lost faith in city leaders to take action on buildings they perceived to be inappropriately large and bulky. With a good interim ordinance, however, he said he would be willing to urge people to vote against the initiative, if it gathers the requisite number of signatures to appear on the ballot...
House, who appeared to waver back and forth on the merits of an interim ordinance, ultimately swung in favor of the proposal after Falcone and Williams agreed not to place a timeline on the process.
Williams said the intent is to use input from a current round of Plan Santa Barbara community workshops to build the temporary ordinance.
--------------------------
For full text of the article, please go to:
SBDS: Temporary Building Guidelines
Labels: building heights, ordinance, Plan Santa Barbara, planning
Posted by Malcolm on
4/23/2008
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1 Comments
I'm trying to picture why this is an end run. Can't the group gathering signatures still get their issue placed on the ballot? This looks to me to be a good step.
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