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City Councilman Brian Barnwell hopes to spearhead a discussion about how tall Santa Barbara buildings should be -- and on a deeper level, what residents want downtown to look like.
In response to a number of projects in the pipeline that meet the city’s current height limit of 60 feet -- and other four-story structures that could come after that -- Barnwell will ask city staff to present an ordinance in two months that would set a limit on building height at 40 feet for the next two years.
 Brian Barnwell
“Two years would allow us to catch our breath and figure out what we really want downtown to be,” he said.
After months of hearing rumblings about the idea, members of the City Council will have their first official conversation about Barnwell's proposal at 2 p.m. today at City Hall.
Normally, city staff would present an agenda item such as this after passing it by other committees and the public. But Barnwell, with backing from Councilman Roger Horton, requested it be put on today's council agenda.
Even though the city is heading into a two-year process to update its General Plan, a state mandated blueprint for the future, Barnwell says this issue can’t wait. He wants to give the Planning Commission, the Architectural Review Board and the Historic Landmarks Commission more power to stop big buildings in the interim two years before the new General Plan -- called Plan Santa Barbara -- is considered.
 A 21-unit condominium complex on Chapala Street has drawn criticism about the city's height restrictions. SBN.
“When we make big changes in Santa Barbara, it’s been our practice to really think it through and think about all possibilities from all angles,” he said. “What is so urgent that we would skip our normal process?”
Barnwell, also a former Planning Commissioner, said the problem with the General Plan is that its contents are only theoretical. He hopes instead to make change through ordinance so that planning officials will have more muscle to back up their decision-making.
 A 21-unit condominium complex on Chapala Street has drawn criticism about the city's height restrictions. SBN
A 50-unit condominium project at 101 E. Victoria Street will be considered this month by the Planning Commission, along with others on Arrellaga and Figueroa streets.
Today's discussion will focus on giving direction to staff. Community Development Director Paul Casey, a key city staff member who oversees planning, said he plans to give a presentation on today about what structures exist now downtown and what projects may be coming.
Legal concerns also will be addressed, including the ways such an ordinance could be enacted. These could include amending the city's charter by a vote of the people or changing the city's zoning code.
Casey also emphasized in his brief staff report for today's discussion that “thoughtful care and inclusive deliberation should occur with whatever direction is give by Council.”
Mayor Marty Blum, along with House, stressed the importance of that point. She, too, said the idea is worth discussing, but that it needs to be a citywide discussion.
Barnwell's push for new height restrictions hasn't been a secret, however, by any means. Recently retired Planning Commissioner Bill Mahan has been promoting the lower height limit publicly for months.
Mahan was on the Planning Commission when it approved the Chapala Street complex, but said that seeing the project in the “stucco flesh, I probably would have worried about pushing the developer down somewhat.”
Commissioner's hands, however, are often tied, he said. Builders can rightly argue their projects are compatible with surrounding building heights -- in the Chapala Street case, Nordstrom’s department store and other stores in the Paseo Nuevo shopping mall, Mahan said.
“It all seemed like a good thing at the time,” he said, particularly because the developers included affordable units in the building.
He said politicians have to do something drastic to put this issue in the forefront, or else “Santa Barbara won’t look like it used to look.”
As property values skyrocket and more rich people move to town, builders are going to keep building up, he said.
Barnwell said he anticipates a wider discussion emerging about the whole character of downtown, including how far buildings should be set back, whether upper stories should taper away from the property line and how parking can be accommodated.
“I hope this gets the general public to understand what it means to say ‘I don’t like tall buildings,’” he said. “There are a lot of things to consider when you say that. It opens up a whole bigger discussion.”
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