Coast Village Circle gets rebuilt and expect more cars on Coast Village Road for now

​​​​​​​An insiders shortcut connecting Santa Barbara and the start of Montecito is getting rebuilt and traffic is going to emerge in other places for the next two months.

Coast Village Circle sustained impacts during the Montecito mudflow that got into parts of Santa Barbara along with Highway 101.

Crews with Lash Construction have begun a two-month project to replace the asphalt, restripe the street and improve drainage.

It will be done in five phases. That enables those who need to come and go in certain driveways to have access from one side or another.

The work is starting from the west side. Each segment will take seven to nine days.

Some residents hope drivers don’t try to cut through their streets, but worry “they are just going to find different alternate routes going through neighborhoods,” said Eva Linowski.

For workers, parking on the street or the angle parking of Coast Village Road, it could get costly.

John Caprilli an employee with Mancheser Capital says, “there’s only a two-hour parking limit. It is not really convenient for anybody who comes through Coast Village Road and works.
“One of my co-worker travels in from Thousand Oaks and he parks there every day so it is going to be a hardship for the next couple of months.”

During the two-month work schedule, Caprilli says he’s just going to leave his car at home. “I am going to bike again like I did back in Isla Vista!”

Traffic in the 18 months since the mudflow on Coast Village Road has been significantly heavier. Linowski is worried about emergency vehicles. “It is just gridlock. If there is an ambulance or an emergency it would be very difficult to get through.”