We recently reviewed and endorsed the following projects:

Los Portales: 100% Workforce Housing for Local Employees

• 100% workforce housing
• 90 residential condominiums
• All units will be sold at below-market rate prices for home ownership
• Units will be restricted to and affordable by employees with annual household incomes up to 200% of area median income (AMI for family of four is currently $64,700)
• Units will be resale-restricted to maintain affordability
• 60 2-bedroom units
• 30 3-bedroom units
• Unit size between 1,150 and 1,450 square feet
• 8,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space

These for-sale units will be located at the northwest corner of Los Portales and Calle Cesar Chavez. The site is currently a vacant lot. The project is within walking distance to State Street, Milpas Street and the beach. The project will provide a new, full-service bus stop.

Coastal Housing’s project evaluation team has reviewed the Los Portales proposal, a joint project by the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Foundation and Bermant Development Company, and has given the project our resounding endorsement. This project meets or exceeds all of CHP’s criteria for attractive, desirable housing to serve the needs of South Coast workers. The fact that project sponsors intend to make all of the units affordable to workers earning less than 200% of Area Median Income, provides a real bonus to the South Coast region. This would allow our local workforce such as firefighters, teachers and non-profit employees to live in the community in which they serve.

While this project’s designers could have squeezed in more units under the City’s 60 foot height limitation, they chose not to do so, instead limiting the height to a more compatible 48 feet. However, the reduction in the number of units has resulted in a narrowing of the project’s financial feasibility. If the project is to remain 100% affordable, it is imperative that there be no further reduction in unit numbers. CHP believes this is an appropriate trade-off between efficiency and aesthetics.

Therefore, Coastal Housing joins with dozens of South Coast nonprofit organizations and businesses in enthusiastically endorsing the Montecito Street project and urges the City of Santa Barbara Planning Commission to approve initiation of the permit process with no alteration to the number of critically needed housing units it will provide.

Cottage Residential Project on the former St. Francis Hospital site in Santa Barbara

Cottage Health Systems (CHS) proposes to remove the former hospital buildings and provide 115 residences. The current plan is to offer eighty-one (70%) of these residences, for sale exclusively to Cottage Health System employees, at prices affordable to households with annual incomes between 100% - 200% of the area median income, about $75,000 to $125,000 for a family of four. It is CHS’s intent to offer to sell the remaining residences at below market rate to other healthcare employees in the community. CHS will make this determination once they have a better estimate of the approval process and costs involved.

Coastal Housing believes this project is significant for a number of reasons. First, it will be one of the few examples on the South Coast where a major employer provides housing for its employees. We realize that while providing employee housing is not within reach of most employers, it is significant when an employer does take action to provide homes for their workforce.

Building workforce housing in an already developed neighborhood, with existing infrastructure - roads, sewer, schools, parks, public transportation - combined with close proximity to the employer, embraces the principles of smart growth planning.

Such in-fill development is supported by Coastal Housing. However, at a recent City Planning Commission conceptual review hearing, we did request that the City consider allowing a reduced parking standard for this site, so that Cottage Health Systems could add more residences.

Mental Health Association: Special Needs and Workforce Housing project located on Garden and Ortega Streets in Santa Barbara

This will be a 100 percent affordable rental project consisting of 50 residences and mixed use development. Twenty-five of the residences will be allocated to Mental Health Association special needs clients in the very low income category and the remainder of the rental residences will be allocated to downtown Santa Barbara employees in the moderate income category (about $50,000 for a family of four). These two groups, that have historically been priced out of the local housing market, will now have the opportunity to live, work and be a part of the community.

Coastal Housing believes that this is a good example of a mixed-use project. In addition to the rental housing, it will also include space for: the MHA Fellowship Club; MHA offices; leased office space for the City and non-profit agencies; parking for MHA functions and all residences; as well as parking for City offices located across the street.

Our endorsement for this project was given due to the diversity of creative solutions resulting in a mixed-use, in-fill development designed for an urban setting. The City of Santa Barbara and MHA, came together to mutually address their challenges: workforce and special needs housing, office space and City employee parking.

City of Santa Barbara

• Paseo De La Playa: 131 unit project; 40% affordable and attainable units
• The Villas:16-unit residential units; 37% affordable units
• Castillo de las Fuentas: 42 residential units; 100% affordable rental units

City of Goleta

• Old Town Inn and Village Project: 98-room hotel and 37 residential units; 20% of units are affordable
• The Village at Los Carneros: 264 residential units; 37% affordable and attainable units
• Sumida Gardens: 200 residential rental units; 50% affordable rental units
• Residences at Sandpiper: 109 residential units; 20% affordable units