Local architect Detty Peikert of Peikert Group Architects created a video in which well-known downtown buildings have lines drawn across them at 40-foot heights. Among many theaters, hotels, churches, government buildings and more, some of the tallest include the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, Arlington Theatre and Trinity Church...

Labels: building heights

[ "Schneider on Hot Seat - Height Initiative Wins Tactical Victory," by Nick Welsh, SB INDEPENDENT, March 26, 2009 ]


An obviously agonized Helene Schneider  —  Santa Barbara City councilmember and mayoral candidate  —  cast the key vote giving traditional slow-growthers active with Save El Pueblo Viejo a significant tactical victory in their battle to put an initiative limiting the maximum size of new buildings on the November election ballot...

... Save El Pueblo supporters denounced the alternative  —  drafted by councilmembers Das Williams and Grant House — as an effort to leave voters, in the words of signature gatherer Bill Marks, “hornswoggled, boondoggled, or conned.”

... Schneider cast the tie-breaking vote to keep the alternative off the ballot, despite having initially criticized the initiative as “too simplistic” and having voted twice to authorize City Hall to pursue alternative language. After listening to the community and members of the city’s many boards and commissions, Schneider said she concluded that the alternative language was just not right. By voting against the alternative, however, Schneider found herself breaking with many close political friends and allies in the affordable housing and sustainability camp. Privately, she said the alternative process was fatally uncertain; the public would not vote on the precise enabling ordinance language until some indeterminate time after having voted in favor of the alternative itself. And that’s assuming that there would be five city councilmembers — the minimum legally required — willing to place it on the ballot.

None of this washed, however, with Mickey Flacks, an iconic affordable housing activist who until Tuesday was also a Schneider supporter. Flacks dismissed the vote as “politically calculated” and said she would no longer support Schneider in her mayoral run. (Flacks also said she would not support Councilmember Iya Falcone, whom Schnieder is now running against.) Despite past criticisms of the initiative, Schneider declined for the time being to state whether she would support it or oppose it come November...

Joining Falcone and Schneider to exclude the alternative was Mayor Marty Blum and Councilmember Dale Francisco. Joining Williams and House in supporting the alternative was Councilmember Roger Horton. Horton pointed out that the City Council never approved any of the projects on Chapala Street and that no civic groups now supporting the initiative appealed those projects to the council. He took offense that these developments had been approved by the city’s Planning Commission, and some of the most ardent supporters of the initiative were the very planning commissioners who approved them.

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For full text and lotsa comments, please go to:

SBI: Hotseat

Labels: building heights

[ Excerpt from; "Opinions fly at building height discussion," By Eric Lindberg, DAILY SOUND, March 4, 2009 ]


... Since a group of local residents known collectively as Save El Pueblo Viejo (SEPV) gathered thousands of signatures and qualified their initiative for the November ballot, the city has been looking into a series of options to address the matter on its own.



If approved, the citizen initiative would lower building height limits to 40 feet in the city’s historic district and 45 feet in other commercial areas where the limit is currently 60 feet.

The latest strategy presented to the City Council’s ordinance committee was a supplemental ballot measure to accompany the SEPV initiative that would allow building projects to exceed the new limits if they are deemed a community priority.

However, two members of the committee recommended that the city move forward with its own charter amendment lowering building height limits and addressing other issues such as open space and affordable housing.

“I’m very concerned with the oversimplification of this issue,” Councilmember Grant House said. “…I don’t believe that the supplemental ballot approach can reap the benefits that a separate ballot alternative could.”

Councilmember Dale Francisco abstained from much of the discussion, explaining that he didn’t feel the city should be involved in essentially undermining a citizen-led effort to address concerns about bulky and tall buildings.

“The Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative is quite clear,” he said. “A simple up or down vote on that is all that’s necessary.”

... Bill Mahan, one of the creators of the SEPV initiative, evoked memories of a March 25, 1969 vote by the City Council to approve two nine-story condominium towers at the site of what is now Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens.

The citizens fought back with a charter amendment to restrict building heights to their current limits, he said.

“What is your legacy going to be?” Mahan said. “That city council, nobody can remember their names anymore, but we all remember what they did. Please, please don’t do this. Don’t do this. It will be a terrible legacy for you.”

Cathy McCammon also reflected on the circumstances leading to the city’s current building height limits.

“The original height limit amendment was put into the charter because people at that time did not want the city council to have the power to change the ordinance,” she said. “The same is true today.”

Lisa Plowman, planning manager for Peikert Group Architects and a former county planner, countered those statements by calling on the city to move forward with a charter amendment of its own to offer a choice to voters.

“It’s a sad thing to me that this initiative has hijacked the General Plan process,” she said, referring to an extensive overhaul of the city’s guiding principles currently underway. “I don’t think ballot-box planning is a good idea, but here we are.”

... Councilmember Das Williams addressed some of the criticism directed at city leaders.

“I really, really feel like the tone of this debate has gotten to a point of ridiculous proportions,” he said. “When we are being threatened with ignominy and obscurity for supporting what is the current status quo … I just think it’s a little insulting.”

He said the citizen-led initiative is aimed at addressing a serious community concern, but goes about it in an “overly simple” way.

“At least a supplemental [ballot measure] would not, to me, be fairly criticized as potentially killing the original ballot measure, although that seems to be what it’s being tarred with anyway,” Williams said.

Despite leaning toward the supplemental ballot measure approach, the councilmember eventually agreed with House to recommend that the council pursue its own charter amendment.

The topic should come up for discussion before the full council on March 24.

Labels: building heights, city of santa barbara

[ From: "Santa Barbara Raises, Then Lowers Height Limitation Visibility," By Lara Cooper, NOOZHAWK, 02/12/2009 ]

... The Santa Barbara City Council and Planning Commission... discussed putting an amendment on November’s ballot that would compete with a citizen-led initiative that began last year.

More than 11,000 signatures were gathered in support of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative, which would restrict height limits to 40 feet in downtown areas and 45 feet elsewhere in the city. Currently, buildings are allowed to reach 60 feet in commercial zones. City officials Thursday weighed whether to put an alternative charter amendment on the ballot, which would allow projects to be considered case-by-case, allowing building heights to range from 45 to 60 feet, for community priority, affordable housing and rental projects.

The SEPV initiative, and the proposed charter amendment, both have mixed reviews at the city. The Architectural Review Board did not support the SEPV initiative, saying that having a uniform roof height would lead to a more “homogenized city.” The Historic Landmarks Commission, however, did approve...

The issue becomes even murkier because Santa Barbara is in the middle of updating and consolidating its General Plan, which has been ongoing since 2005. In spite of budget uncertainties, John Ledbetter, the city’s principal planner, said he felt optimistic that the adoption goal of spring of 2010 could be met. But a November ballot will force the issue of height limits earlier.

“The process has taken too damn long,” said Commissioner John Jostes, a sentiment that drew the agreement of other officials.

Nearly all of the session’s public speakers encouraged the officials to put the charter amendment on the ballot.

“The era of two-story Santa Barbara is over,” said housing advocate Mickey Flacks, who said the initiative proposed by SEPV opposed sustainability.

Others agreed.

“We have an obligation for stewardship,” said Detlev Peikert, principal of Peikert Group Architects. Peikert said the SEPV initiative would encourage sprawl.

The issue was more divided between council members and commissioners, several of whom signed off on the SEPV initiative.

“The big buildings are changing the character of the city,” Commissioner Harwood White said.

A founding member of Save El Pueblo Viejo, White said he stands by the voters’ initiative. He said multifamily zoning has been “trashed” and that it should remain modest in size, emphasizing rentals, “not mansionized condos.”

Commissioner Bruce Bartlett emphasized a need to see the bigger picture.

“We’re raising our salaries and lowering building heights,” he said. “I think our focus should be on different things.”

Councilman Das Williams said he was “dismayed with how political this process has become. I work in other communities, and the bad rap for Santa Barbara is that we allow aesthetics to trump other ethical considerations.”

Mayor Marty Blum said that she didn’t want to put an alternative to the SEPV initiative on the ballot. “I think growth in Santa Barbara should be small,” she said. “It always has been.”

The alternative charter amendment item will go before the ordinance committee on March 3 andthe City Council will take it up later next month.

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For full text, please go to:

NOOZHAWK: Raising then Lowering

Labels: building heights, zoning