Santa Barbara leaders ask for community input for Downtown Strategic Plan

Vacant storefronts, homelessness and a lack of housing, all issues that we’ve seen firsthand impacting State Street and the Central Business District over the years.

City leaders went straight to the source Thursday asking for community input as they develop the Downtown Strategic Plan.

The consulting firm the city hired said this is not just a State Street issue, the problems that we’re hoping to fix downtown are issues that they’re seeing in communities across California.

Santa Barbara city leaders are taking a pulse of the community trying to really tap into what will bring and keep people downtown.

“The city can only do so much. It’s really with the private-public partnerships that the problem is going to get solved,” said Keith Higbee, Executive Vice President of Value Engineers.

Eight topic areas, encompassing everything from public safety, housing and business retention have been identified to help draft the Downtown Strategic Plan.

“What we want to understand is what is the community willing to envision the future of those areas are and what ideas, what tactics or strategies can we use to get to that vision,” said Higbee.

Community involvement is key as leaders ask “from, to, by.”

“The policies, the actions steps, help us prioritize some of those key projects so we know what to tackle short term and projects to look to long term,” said Nina Johnson, Senior Assistant to the Santa Barbara City Manager.

For residents like Daniel Colantonio, part of the solution is to create more housing opportunities on State Street.

“More people need to be living downtown 24/7 so we can create the kind of community that we want to create,” said Colantonio, Hustlers for Humanity.

Colantonio says he cares deeply about his community but more housing for all incomes is needed.

“A lot of people on the streets but a lot of average people, a lot of middle-class people, young people as well, all trying to live here sustainably in the community and not finding it,” said Colantonio.

It’s voices like that, that stakeholders say need to be heard.

“It’s only with community involvement that these solutions are going to get solved,” said Higbee.

The main takeaways from Thursday’s workshop will be included in the Downtown Strategic Plan that will be presented to the City Council in June.