For a meeting about urban planning, Monday night’s gathering drew an unorthodox crowd: Health care officials and social service providers.
 
As the city heads into the long process of updating of its general plan -- a major ordeal that will dictate growth and development for the next 20 years -- health officials want a say due to the high rate of obesity, diabetes and other health-related issues that can be compounded by a poorly planned city, advocates say.

“The things you do dictate where people go, how they get from Point A to Point B,” said Alex Kelter, a retired physician and chief of Epidemiology and Prevention for Injury Control. “What you do probably has more to do with health care than anything.”

Kelter directed those comments toward the city leaders and planning staff in the audience, but they were by far the minority among the 70 people who attended Monday’s gathering at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.

The meeting was organized in part by City Councilwoman Helene Schneider and others in the newly formed “Coalition for Community Wellness.” It was intended to get input from health officials and others who deal with some of the secondary effects of urban sprawl and the fallout from planning decisions.

It is no accident, Kelter said, that obesity rates have gone up in the same time as neighborhoods have fanned out away from city centers, schools and workplaces.
 
Other speakers Monday included Judy Corbett, executive director of the Local Government Commission, a group that has helped cities plan better for the health of its residents; and John Ledbetter, the principal planner in charge of Santa Barbara’s General Plan update, called Plan Santa Barbara.

The city will begin a series of community meetings throughout the summer to get input about what people like and don’t like about Santa Barbara. The plan isn’t expected to be complete for two years.

Monday’s meeting, however, was certainly a deviance from the norm. Usually General Plan discussions are packed with developers, architects or others concerned about the look of Santa Barbara.

“You are not the usual suspects when it comes to planning and urban design,” Schneider said, “but you should be.”

Kelter and Corbett made cases for more dense development in the downtown centers, including a more creative use of mixed use buildings that include commercial and residential components.

Grouping people together leaves more room for larger parks, which lead to more active lifestyles, and makes transit more efficient, they said. It also encourages people to get out of their cars and onto to their feet, bikes, strollers and walkers.
 
Density, though, is a hotly debated topic in Santa Barbara -- especially now. A number of tall buildings being erected in the downtown corridor has sparked a heated discussion about protecting the character of Santa Barbara, including its scenic views and historic districts, and providing housing for regular people.
 
The key planning agencies in Santa Barbara are discussing ways to deal with the height of buildings and other related issues, and it will undoubtedly be a huge component in the General Plan update.

Ledbetter and others agreed the downtown area already is a good example of planning; it has elements of mixed use, transit efficiency and design. But the city just completed a study of the upper State Street area, which is not as pedestrian-friendly and needs better connectivity to the rest of the city.

Santa Barbara also has an ongoing and looming problem -- how to building housing for middle class workers. Sprawl is not the answer, Kelter said.

“We’ve built communities for cars rather than people,” he said, pointing to figures showing that mothers today drive about 137 percent further for errands that mothers 40 years ago.
 
 Communities all over the country will have to do a better job as the rates of obesity skyrocket, he said. Deaths from illnesses attributable to excessive weight are near the rate of deaths from tobacco, according to his figures.
 
The discussion over Santa Barbara’s future will continue with the next General Plan meeting, which is from 6 to 9 p.m. June 13 at the Faulkner Gallery. For a complete schedule or more information about the General Plan, visit  www.YouPlanSb.org.