••• Last we heard from CycleBar, it was planning to open a studio at Paseo Nuevo. But there’s no mention of that location on the company’s website, while one at the Magnolia Center on Hollister Avenue in Noleta is listed as “coming soon” and on the county Planning Commission’s May 31 agenda.
••• An SBRoads postcard said that the construction of the Montecito section of Highway 101 will start in mid-June, with the San Ysidro Road intersection taking the first hit: the northbound and southbound onramps will be closed from sometime in 2023 through all of 2024, and the northbound offramp will be closed from spring 2024 to early 2025. Moreover, the San Ysidro Road overcrossing will be closed to vehicles (but not pedestrians) this summer—so anyone trying to reach the Miramar resort by car will have to take the southbound offramp or wind their way over from Olive Mill.
••• Add another 30 apartment units to the list of ones in the pipeline. From a press release about 1609 and 1615 Grand Avenue on the Lower Riviera:
Craig Martin Smith, of Los Angeles–based Industrial Partners Group, submitted Santa Barbara’s first builder’s remedy preliminary application, which was deemed approved Monday. The proposed 30-unit multifamily building has 6 designated low income units. The Spanish revival–styled project, sited on a vacant double lot in the Lower Riviera neighborhood, features 4,000 feet of outdoor communal deck space with panoramic city and ocean views for residents. The project has underground vehicle parking, electric vehicle charging, bicycle parking, and resident storage. The location is convenient to downtown.
The city of Santa Barbara is currently out of compliance with the State’s housing element. Under the “Builder’s Remedy,” California cities and counties that are out of compliance with the State’s housing element forfeit their authority to deny affordable housing projects on the grounds that the project is inconsistent with zoning or General Plan standards. On Monday, the City approved Smith’s SB330 preliminary application, which is the first to be submitted in the City and provides vesting for the project.
••• Interesting comment from Cate about Santa Barbara Airport: “After a career in this business, there is a general rule that small airports must keep costs low. That is all they have to offer carriers whose profit on short hops and volume of originating traffic is slim. One gate at LAX or SFO boards more passengers in a day than the entire terminal at SBA does in a week, or month. An overbuilt terminal increased costs. We may have gone a bit overboard on it. Two stories for a tiny tarmac and small airplanes.”
••• Noozhawk reported recently that a “toy train station” would be taking over the former Open Air Bicycles space on State Street, with the only logical assumption being that the Bosse Toy Train Museum next door is expanding. The museum now states on its website that it’s running private tours for groups. I filled out the form online and got no response; the voicemail has not been set up; and an email bounced back. The organization is a 501(c)(3), and the latest financials, from 2020, show $700,319 in revenue from contributions (and a tiny bit of interest) and $20,353 in expenses. Because those contributions are tax deductible, a cynic would naturally conclude that the founder is using the tax code to support his hobby. He wouldn’t be the only one; there’s more on the topic here.
••• Caltrans says that State Route 33 north of Ojai will be closed “at least through the summer to repair extensive winter storm damage.”
••• Los Padres ForestWatch makes a case that the ring nets installed in the creeks above Montecito should be taken down. An excerpt:
In January of 2023, the net on upper San Ysidro Creek filled up with debris after the first major storm of this season. From all appearances, the net filled, not with the SUV-sized boulders the community was concerned about, but with smaller vegetation that backed up against the ring nets and then trapped thousands of cubic yards of cobble, gravel and sand that would have otherwise been transported out to our beaches. The structure currently serves as a 25-foot dam entirely blocking the creek, fragmenting sensitive wildlife habitat and posing a serious public safety hazard and liability.
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Who the heck is Cate and why does she think she knows anything about the Santa Barbara Airport. Obviously she does not.