••• 821 State Street (Canon Perdido/De La Guerra), formerly home to Sur La Table, is being converted to 14 units of “below-market workforce housing.” —Independent
••• Fed up with noise and other pollution from Santa Barbara Airport, Goleta residents vented to the Goleta city council—unfortunately, the airport is in the jurisdiction of the city of Santa Barbara. —Independent
••• “Planning Commission Approves Montecito Segment of Highway 101 Corridor Project [….] Construction is expected to start next summer on the section” from Sheffield Drive to Olive Mill Road, and run through fall 2026. The big, ugly, noisy concrete-mixing plant will stay where it is now, near the western end of Padaro Lane. —Noozhawk
••• Santa Barbara Magazine got a peek inside Bellosguardo, which has just started offering tours. Wonder why it didn’t get the cover? (Full disclosure: I wrote about three restaurants for the issue.)
••• The Independent looks into why Aloha Fun Center didn’t open in the old Macy’s, and the article has some interesting input from developer Jason Jaeger about the challenges involved in converting the Macy’s building—and by extension, all of Paseo Nuevo—to residential: “For the Macy’s building in particular, newly dubbed the Ortega Building, Jaeger said that local developers think it is a prime location for a big apartment building with mixed-use retail. ‘However, the building footprint, the way it’s laid out, structurally doesn’t lend itself to repositioning it,’ he said. ‘So to start over, it’s going to be really costly, and developers are going to want, instead of a 42-year ground lease … a 99-year ground lease, so they can amortize the costs, and the city is going to have to figure out how to incentivize them.'”
••• The Well in Summerland “recently added an adjacent cottage pop-up shop with rotating vendors […] The Well’s most recent pop-up shop is Twelve Supply, which is owned by Michigan transplant Anna Alexopoulos and features jeans, sweaters, shoes, hats, dresses, pajamas, wellness products and handbags.” —Noozhawk
••• “Carpinteria’s planning commission approved a long-term plan for parklets in town and moved forward with a permanent ban on formula businesses [….] The final plan would establish the parklets for the long run, allowing restaurants and food service businesses on the ground floor within the downtown ‘T’ district to use outdoor parklets for the next five years at least, so long as they fit within the newly established guidelines.” Moreover, The planning commission recommended that city council also add a provision in the ordinance [regarding “formula businesses”] to allow other exceptions when they came up or allow businesses to appeal in certain circumstances.” In other words, the government will cherry-pick what can open downtown. —Coastal View News
••• “Efforts by the Santa Barbara County supervisors to allow hikers, joggers, dogs, and cyclists to co-exist with horseback riders for the first time on the Live Oak Trail—located on the north side of Lake Cachuma—took a major fall last week […] when Judge Anderle ruled the county violated the state laws governing environmental review and awarded the equestrians who sued $300,000 in legal fees for their pain.” —Independent
••• “In January 2023, La Cumbre Plaza will be home to a brand new ‘Inclusive Arts Clubhouse’ where people of all abilities can enjoy creative pursuits such as art, dance and music, announced Grace Fisher at her foundation’s Winter Showcase benefit performance at the Granada on Friday night.” —Independent
••• Blue Ojai, the shop sharing a building with the excellent Beacon Coffee in Ojai, is related to Clic. —Santa Barbara Magazine
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