Underground garage concerns raised during discussion of 101 Garden Street Hotel Project appeal

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-People packed the Santa Barbara City Council chamber to discuss the appeal of a hotel project near Santa Barbara's Funk Zone.

Workers hoping to work on the 101 Garden Street Hotel Project wore orange shirts.

Supporters of the Alliance for Environmental Responsibility filed an appeal discussed during Tuesday's council meeting.

Council members heard from the developers and critics for several hours.

The co-founder of Heal of the Ocean called the project's plan for an underground parking lot one of the biggest sticking points.

Hilary Hauser said the property used to be a dump.

"It is probably the most contaminated sight in Santa Barbara," said Hauser, " This site is really a problem it is where the heal the ocean got it started on groundwater contamination so we need to know what is in there we know it takes a development to get the money to clean it up and we actually encouraged it we just didn't see this monster and the underground garage."

Heal the Ocean's policy analyst Noah Bolans said, "It is a massive contaminated mess and as much as we want remediation at this site, this underground parking garage makes it basically reverses this and made this situation significantly worse."

The area near the beach is zoned for a hotel.

Developers chose not to comment on the 250 room hotel during a break in the meeting, but information can be found on the city's website at https://santabarbaraca.gov/garden street hotel/ city of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara City Council members voted unanimously to continue their deliberation on Tuesday, Nov. 19.