Housing Element Update Approved 

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved the Housing Element Update (HEU) on Tuesday, solidifying the State-mandated housing chapter of the County’s Comprehensive Plan. The purpose of the Housing Element is to accommodate existing and projected housing needs for all residents of the unincorporated County. 

County planners presented the HEU to the Supervisors, explaining that Santa Barbara County is experiencing one of the nation’s most severe housing crisis, with inadequate supply, skyrocketing rents and property values, and overcrowding. The majority of the workforce in critical services, including agriculture, healthcare, public safety, and education, struggles to afford local housing and is forced to commute long distances from their jobs. Each day, approximately 31,000 workers commute to the South Coast from areas outside the county, or in North County. 

The County is required to accommodate its fair share of the region’s housing needs, or Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA); there are 5,664 housing units slated for the South Coast of the county. What was approved on Tuesday was a potential list of sites that could be re-zoned in order to meet RHNA numbers, as well as a list of County-owned sites that could accommodate future development. Meeting the County’s RHNA numbers will reduce commuter trips, in part helping the County to achieve its climate goals. 

Supervisor Laura Capps and many members of the public brought up the disproportionate number of re-zone sites and subsequent units proposed in Goleta compared to other areas of the county. “The decision to put 75 percent of these units in the Goleta Valley, on agriculture, I don’t support,” Capps said. “I am a champion of affordable housing, and this plan falls short.” The 18 sites listed proposed in the HEU in the South Coast are divided between Eastern Goleta Valley, Isla Vista, un-incorporated Santa Barbara, and two nursery/greenhouse sites in Carpinteria. 

“The unique thing about eastern Goleta valley is that it’s one of the only areas in the South Coast that has vacant or under-developed parcels that are located in the urban areas. It was the most suitable land in the county suited for re-zoning,” said one of the planners on the proposal. 

The HEU was approved in a 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Laura Capps and Bob Nelson dissenting. The re-zone sites will be further discussed next spring.  

For more visit www.countyofsb.org.