Planning commission reviews draft State Street Master Plan emphasizing pedestrian-first ‘flex’ street and downtown housing

Santa Barbara — At its May 21 meeting the Planning Commission reviewed the draft State Street Master Plan, hearing a staff presentation that pushes a pedestrian-first “flex” street and a package of policy tools to speed downtown housing.

Tess Harris, the city’s State Street master planner, told commissioners the plan covers State Street from Gutierrez to Solano and Chapala to Anacapa — roughly a mile — and responds to four principal challenges: gaps in activation in the center of the corridor, unresolved mobility tensions among pedestrians, bikes and cars, a shortage of downtown housing and aging infrastructure. She said staff’s technical work identified about 360 existing suitable units inside the plan zone and 2,337 potential units across the broader central business district, and noted pending/approved projects since 2023 total roughly 350 units.

The consultant team led by Stephanos Palazoides of Mullen Palazoides outlined the street design the plan advances: 30-foot sidewalks on each side, a 20-foot central area composed of two 10-foot lanes to preserve 24-hour emergency access, widened pedestrian and furnishing zones, expanded tree alleys in a civic/commercial core and a system of retractable bollards to let the city close the street for festivals and reopen it for transit, deliveries and emergency vehicles. Palazoides described the ‘‘flex’’ concept as a middle path between permanently closing the street to cars and leaving it car-dominant.

Why it matters: The plan pairs design with policy. Staff described incentives such as the AUD program and noted AB 2097’s downtown parking provisions as enabling tools. Council earlier received the draft and voted in several related actions reported at the meeting: it received the draft as the primary framework (7–0); it endorsed the pedestrian-first vision (6–1); it supported the flexible design approach with a mix of votes (5 yes, 1 abstain, 1 no); it prioritized the civic/commercial three-block district (6–1); and it supported incorporating 1,000–2,000 housing units in the master-plan area (7–0), staff said.

What commissioners and the public focused on: commissioners used the session to press for more engineering detail and clearer phasing. Several commissioners asked staff to prioritize stormwater and underground utilities — both because those systems strongly affect where and how many housing units the city can accommodate, and because repairing or replacing buried infrastructure later would require reopening rebuilt streets. Tess Harris acknowledged the imperative: downtown lacks continuous underground stormwater infrastructure between key blocks, and the master plan anticipates centralized stormwater storage and utility consolidation where feasible.

Public commenters and equity concerns: Sarah Ayanna, executive director of Move Santa Barbara County, urged the commission to support biking and walking access and said research shows people arriving by bike or on foot visit businesses more frequently. Ayanna asked the city to perform an equity-centered analysis of financing strategies — such as assessment districts or bonds — to identify who would bear redevelopment costs and to consider protections against displacement for small businesses and low-income residents. Sullivan Israel of Strong Towns told commissioners he and petition signers favor keeping State Street car-free permanently except for deliveries and emergency access.

Key technical tensions staff said they will study further: the design team prefers rolled curbs in the center civic blocks to improve stormwater capacity and tree planting, but commissioners and some residents had recommended flatter designs to maximize flexibility and minimize the need for bollards; staff said trade-offs remain. Commissioners also repeatedly asked for detailed circulation studies before changes to adjacent parallel or cross streets are approved (two‑way conversions of Chapala, Anacapa, Haley and Gutierrez were raised as potential mitigations). Bike volumes on State Street were cited at roughly 2,000–2,500 bicycles per day at peak summer counts, compared with pre-2020 vehicle counts of about 9,000 per day at some locations, a data point commissioners used to debate the trade-offs of allowing cars at limited hours.

Costs and next steps: Staff described three construction phases and a range of funding sources — active-transportation and urban-greening grants, city capital budget, bonds, philanthropic contributions, parking and hotel tax reinvestment and property-assessment/benefit districts. Staff advised detailed engineering and block-by-block design would follow and that the public comment period on the draft stays open through June 30, with staff planning to return with a final plan in summer.

What the commission asked staff to do next: commissioners collectively asked for additional engineering work on stormwater and underground utilities, a clearer phasing/timeline tied to specific actions (including housing-policy work), additional analysis of the 400‑ and 1300‑block conditions, options for slowing bicycle speeds and enforcing e-bike limits, study of bollard types and operations, and measures that would protect small businesses and lower-income residents from displacement during revitalization.

The commission did not take a final vote on the plan; the item returns to staff for refinement and will be heard again by the City Council after the commission and other advisory bodies complete their reviews.