Developer proposes housing project in Carpinteria

CARPINTERIA, Calif. – It’s no secret that communities across Southern California are suffering from serious housing shortages. 

“I live up north of here in the canyon area, housing has been tough," said resident David Samaniego of Carpinteria.

Carpinteria has been asked by the state to provide 901 new units.

So local developer Justin Klentner has spent nearly two years on a housing project at a site in downtown Carpinteria. 

“So this was SunCoast Rentals. They’re currently moving to a new location, our hope is that it turns into 24 apartments, a restaurant and some office space, and has an element of low income housing in it," said Klentner.

As a resident of the small seaside city for close to 30 years, Klentner feels passionate about his community.

“We're really hoping to come up with something special," said Klentner.

The developer worked with the city to target this property going through the entire approval process.

"I thought I was through, because the planning commission had approved me," said Klentner.

But after a green light from the city and architectural review, city council decided to appeal the project, bringing it to a halt.

City council member Wade Nomura of Carpinteria believes the setback may have been a misunderstanding to some degree.

“The misunderstanding occurred with the applicant, in my belief, that the process – even though it went to this point – for the city council to review it, we have to quote 'appeal it,'" said Nomura.

“It’s one of the larger projects the city has seen in the downtown area for a while, and so there’s a lot of community interest around it, and it’s important for the community that counsel have an opportunity to weigh in on the project," said city manager Michael Ramirez of Carpinteria.

After two years of hard work, Klentner is hoping to get final approval to move forward with the project at the next city council meeting.

Your News Channel followed up with Klentner, whose experience working with city council has been positive thus far.

And he's relieved to learn about the misunderstanding.

"So my apologies to him about that part of it, said Nomura.

“My hope is that the city council looks at it – that they realize this is exactly what the people want and that it's what this town needs," said Klentner.

"So limited here in Carpinteria and it’s all really old and outdated, so if we can get anything local, that’s new, that’s really nice for us – and at an affordable rate especially, it would just be perfect for all the young professionals coming into town," said Samaniego.

The next city council meeting will address the proposal on March 26.