CVR Project

[ Excerpt from: "Council majority seeks middle ground on CVR project," by Eric Lindberg, DAILY SOUND, July 15, 2008 ]

With community members sharply divided on a proposal to replace an aging gas station on Coast Village Road with eight condos and commercial space, a majority of the Santa Barbara City Council sought a happy medium to divergent viewpoints.

On a 4-3 vote, leaders upheld earlier approvals of the project but sent it along to the city’s design board to work on reducing its bulky appearance...

Since initially presented in 2004, the proposal to destroy a gas station at the corner of Coast Village and Olive Mill roads in order to build a 17,270 square-foot, mixed-use building has provoked fervent criticism from some and unrestrained praise from others.

Its location is commonly heralded as the gateway to Montecito...

A portion of public speakers joined that chorus, citing concerns about its bulk and height, compatibility with neighboring residences, potential traffic impacts and strain on water resources...

Height remained a critical issue for some city leaders, including Councilmember Iya Falcone, who cast a dissenting vote along with Mayor Marty Blum and Councilmember Dale Francisco.

While split on the merits of a third story, the council appeared largely in consensus on another issue — a requested modification on the northern edge of the building to allow a two-story section to protrude into the required setback...

City planner Peter Lawson... said rezoning a 50-foot segment of land along the northern edge of the project site currently designated as residential would merely fit with the city’s General Plan and present commercial use of the property...

While unanimously approving the rezone, the council majority deferred a decision on how exactly to solve the issue of neighborhood compatibility, instead directing the ABR to place an emphasis on resolving the project’s impact on the Olive Mill Road neighborhood.

Falcone and Mayor Blum said the possibility that the building might remain at three stories prevented them from giving it a nod of approval.

“It is just a little bit too big for that corner,” the mayor said. “It’s bulky. I’m struggling with that third story.”

Francisco, however, took issue with another condition of approval backed strongly by Councilmembers Schneider, Das Williams and Grant House.

While the city has yet to finalize changes to its inclusionary housing ordinance — which in essence requires developers to provide affordable units or pay into a city housing fund — Williams asked that the project be held to those standards by paying $17,000 per unit toward the development of affordable housing stock.

Representatives of developer John Price quickly agreed to such a proposition, but Francisco met the concept with great hesitation...

Nonetheless, with a majority vote, the project is off to the city’s design board for more tinkering on its apparent bulkiness and neighborhood compatibility. If the ABR grants preliminary approval to the project, that decision can be appealed back to the council for further discussion.