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A team of local architects created a new sketch of State Street that will be presented for the first time at Monday’s meeting.
The State Street Bank Advisory Committee will meet at 4 p.m. in the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Public Library to discuss the latest plans.
“We are focused on developing and refining the character of Santa Barbara’s local urban space,” said Anthony Grubin, principal architect at Harrison Design.
“The biggest factor that excites me is the strong integration of the paseo system.”
After a rendering by Berkeley consultant MIG frustrated many attendees at an Oct. 23 meeting, committee chairman Dave Davis hired Grubin to develop new sketches.
Grumbine, chairman of the Historic Landmarks Commission, worked with Santa Barbara city staff to convene architects participating in the 2020 AIA Design Symposium to create sketches, renderings and designs that would “visually engage with the Santa Barbara community.” Resonance” road planning.
Newly joined architects include Grumbine, Xue Qing and Alexis Stypa of Harrison Design; Marc Appleton and John Margolis of Appleton Partners; Fred Sweeney; Thomas Sekula of DMHA; and Justin Sekula of Arcadia Studios. Manuel.
Architects volunteer their time.
The City Council approved a $780,000 contract with MIG in 2022 to oversee the State Street master planning process. MIG’s previous renderings were not popular with the public.
Tess Harris, the city’s State Street master planner, said the city still has an active contract with MIG and that she meets with the company weekly. So far, the city has paid $378,000, less than half the contract amount.
“They are currently working with the city on technical studies, economic conditions, stormwater management and infrastructure, intermodal transportation, utilities, street components and drafting a master plan, including an implementation plan,” Harris said.
She said the work was taking more time than planned “given the scale and complexity of creating the national master plan.”
“I do think we’re on the right track and I believe the public will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the draft plan this summer,” Harris said.
Harris noted a lot of interaction with the public. The project’s website has received 21,000 hits, nearly 7,000 people have filled out the survey, and the project has 2,000 email subscribers.
“This dream project has been discussed for decades,” she said. “I firmly believe now is the time to make that happen.”
In May 2020, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city closed nine blocks of State Street between Haley and Sola Streets to vehicular traffic.
City officials want to help restaurants offer outdoor dining after Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down indoor seating.
Nearly four years later, the city is still grappling with how to design State Street, with the public having strong opinions about bicycles, pedestrians, outdoor dining structures and the street’s overall appearance and circulation.
The city formed an advisory committee and the group has been working on the master plan ever since.
Graphic elements of the masterplan, road network and “high-level considerations” will be presented at Monday’s meeting.
From April to July, a small working group will review the plan. By summer, a draft master plan will be submitted, Harris said.
City staff expects the public to review the draft plan between August and October before a final review by an advisory committee in December. City Council is expected to vote on the final master plan in early 2025.
Monday’s meeting will focus on three blocks of State Street and is intended to give people a sense of the variety of experiences that can happen along the street.
“The drawings were also intended to more clearly represent the Santa Barbara style,” Harris said. “The team will also discuss paseo and will present paseo analysis of strong, weak and potential paseos due to Santa Barbara’s unique characteristics.”
Davis said he was excited to see a presentation from a local architect on Monday.
“I hope the public basically expresses support for the direction we’re going,” he said.
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