Nobody likes housing development.
Except for possibly Santa Maria, which doesn’t seem to have very much opposition to building homes or apartments. That city is all-in. And its residents are too—unless, of course, the housing aims to provide shelter for folks who don’t have it. Then there’s a problem.
But I digress. The point is that everyone agrees this state is in the middle of a gigantic housing crisis, but no one wants to fix that crisis in their own backyards.
One couple from Carpinteria expressed how disappointed they were with Santa Barbara County that their “valley” was “targeted for development” in the recently released 2023-31 housing element, which aims to comply with state housing mandates. What about the “traffic, pollution, water use, sewage, and further squeezing of ag out of the valley,” Carp residents Jon and Sue Lewis asked in a public comment letter.
“The supervisors need to focus on putting development where it makes sense (i.e. Orcutt, Lompoc, Santa Maria) and not add to our issues on the South Coast,” they wrote.
Yeah! Put that housing elsewhere—in areas that are nowhere near us. They can have traffic, pollution, water use, sewage, and squeeze ag out of their own valleys. People can commute to their jobs. They don’t need to live next to them.
The Lewises clearly don’t see the right “issues”—because they’re good, so it’s all good, right?
California’s requiring the county to make room for eight times more housing units than was required in the last eight-year housing cycle. The state is asking the county to make it so developers can build more than 4,000 units in South County’s unincorporated areas and 1,500 in North County. So, Sue and John, it’s actually the state that’s targeting your valley!
And for good reason. County Planning and Development Director Lisa Plowman said retaining and recruiting employees is a tough task—housing prices are out of control. Even with an adequate supply of money, it’s hard to buy or even rent a place to live because there aren’t any available. The Lewises don’t seem to see that as an issue.
“Right now, just on the South Coast, less than 8 percent of renters are able to afford a median-priced house,” Plowman said.
That’s ridiculous.
“A third of our employees live in another county,” Plowman said.
That’s also ridiculous.
Plowman added that many residents already commute from North County or another county to get to their jobs on a daily basis.
“You have parents driving two-plus hours every day commuting,” she said. “We need to meet the needs of where the workers are.”
All those economy-stimulating jobs on the South Coast don’t have the housing to match. If there wasn’t a jobs-housing imbalance, the state wouldn’t be requiring the city of Santa Barbara to build 8,000 units by 2031.
Santa Maria has to build 5,000 units—and I have absolute faith the city’s going to hit that target. There are already thousands of units in the planning pipeline.
Meanwhile, in Santa Barbara, a developer recently decided it was too onerous and cumbersome to build housing downtown and opted to build a hotel instead. Ridiculous.
The Canary thinks the South Coast is ridiculous. Send housing units to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 9-16, 2023.