If you are a hotel developer, it may not be a good time to bring a project to the Santa Barbara Planning Commission.
Several members of the commission slapped down a proposal by SIMA Corp. on Thursday, and declared that the 66-room hotel project at 710-720 State St. would worsen the jobs-housing imbalance.
Commissioner Devon Wardlow led the charge against the project, saying that if it wasn’t going to be housing, the developer should have proposed something that benefited the community in other ways.
She said she had “grave concerns” about providing jobs without housing.
“I do not see how this is consistent with or advancing sound community planning,” Wardlow said. “My understanding is that there has been no understanding of the amount of people who will be hired, the wages that they will be received, whether they will be unionized, all that will take place after receiving approval from this commission.
“I find this really concerning.”
Her comments seemed to irk commissioner Lesley Wiscomb, who addressed Wardlow’s concern’s head-on. Casting a glance her way, she implied that her comments were political.
“I am totally confused here,” Wiscomb said. “The number of employees, the wages we pay them, this commission is land use.
“We are not in the business of hotel operation or operation or housing operation. We don’t have any business dictating union versus nonunion. That’s not our purview.”
SIMA, under the limited partnership of 710 State Street Partners, has proposed a 66-room hotel for the site near the intersection of East Ortega St.
The plan is to merge multiple lots, where Restoration Hardware and The Press Room are currently located.
SIMA and The Press Room ownership have reached a private financial agreement for an undisclosed sum that would give the pub relocation expenses and prior noticing before a move.
SIMA had originally proposed a housing project in 2020, but changed it to a hotel because of the high cost of construction and inability to obtain the level of density that would make the project financially feasible.
So the company returned with a hotel project.
Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting raised several conflicting challenges facing the community.
Many activists, including some on the commission, want more housing, but developers who must build it contend the City of Santa Barbara’s planning rules make it too expensive for them to construct a project that makes economic sense.
Last year, when SIMA chairman Jim Knell pulled the housing proposal in favor of a hotel project, he cited the costs to build subsidized housing units and provide parking, and city limits on density.
Wiscomb noted that she wants more housing in Santa Barbara, but reminded the other commissioners that downtown housing is not “affordable,” so the idea that forcing a developer to build housing would benefit working-class and middle-income families was just folly.
“We’re looking for affordable housing in this community,” she said. “This is never going to be affordable housing downtown. We complain constantly about market-rate housing and how high it is. This is going to be market-rate housing.”
The city has a 10% inclusionary housing policy for development. Those units are typically for people who earn between 80% and 120% of the area median income, which is about $101,000.
SIMA’s original housing proposal called for 36 total apartments with three of them set aside as below-market.
Wiscomb also raised concerns about losing another large retail space. Restoration Hardware has already announced plans to move to Montecito, which will create another store vacancy.
“We do not need a very large empty space downtown,” she said.
Adam Geeb, managing member of the SIMA group, said there was very little interest from retailers wanting the space.
Commissioner Sheila Lodge, who served as mayor from 1981 to 1993, said she had difficulty supporting the hotel proposal because it created more low-paying jobs at a time when the city needs housing.
She supported the original housing project, but said her heart sank when it was resubmitted as a hotel.
“It took a project that was just what Santa Barbara needed and exchanged it for what Santa Barbara didn’t need,” Lodge said. “More hotels, with low wage jobs, with no place for those workers to live and just worsening the jobs-housing imbalance.”
Commissioner John Baucke was in a agreement, and even suggested that the City Council reconsider a temporary ban on the approval of new hotels. The council had considered such an ordinance in 2020.
“Action needs to be taken as soon as possible to lower the priority of hotels so they are clearly depicted as less important than housing,” he said. “At a minimum they should be subject to a conditional use permit and not allowed by right.”
With Wiscomb in dissent, the commission voted 5-1 to delay consideration of the project until a seventh member was present.
