• Printer friendly
• E-mail to a friend
• 4 comment(s)
• Recommend

  ( 0 )

• 

De la Guerra Plaza, Photo by Victor Maccharoli.

Cube Ad

Plaza de la Guerra facelift moves forward

By COLBY FRAZIER — Nov. 25, 2009

With five years of debate under its belt, a conceptual plan to revamp Plaza de la Guerra inched forward yesterday when the Santa Barbara City Council moved the project out of the starting gate, allowing it to undergo environmental review.

Past efforts to give the public space a facelift drew harsh criticism, with many saying the goals, which once included plans to shut the horseshoe-shaped road to most automobile traffic and turn the 100 block of East De la Guerra St. into a one-way road, were too expensive and lofty.

The new plan, however, has been extensively pared back. It focuses on simple fixes, like widening the area’s notoriously narrow sidewalks, fixing curbs and relocating utility boxes — improvements most everyone agrees are needed.

Yet, the more controversial elements of the project, like making the roadway flush with the plaza’s grass and eliminating five parking spaces on the horseshoe, drew the ire of some public speakers and prompted council members Dale Francisco and Iya Falcone to vote against the plan.

But for Falcone, the most troubling aspect of plan had nothing to do with actual changes to the plaza. Rather, she deplored the plan’s lengthy journey, during which city staff appeared to end at the same place they started: with a list of mostly simple fixes that resembled what was sought a half-decade ago.

“The just fix-its that were proposed in 2004 are substantially similar, with a few tweaks, [to] what is being proposed here in 2009,” she said. “I think it was a gross waste of time and this should have been done in 2004.”

Councilman Das Williams also noted the extensive amount of time it took to bring a feasible plan before the council, though he said the timeframe simply made him more inclined to get the wheels turning.

“I think we need to get to step one and get past step one,” he said, calling the plaza the “center of the community.” “And it should look like one,” he added. “Instead it looks like a really shabby part of the community and that’s too bad.”

Calling the state of the plaza an “embarrassment,” Mayor Marty Blum lauded the proposed plans, and noted that over the past few years, her quiet street has received a slurry seal twice, while the plaza, one of the city’s most visible and historic spaces, has fallen into a state of disrepair.

“Truly, it is time,” she said.

While there’s little doubt most of the changes would improve the plaza’s functionality, many cringed at the thought of losing five parking spaces.

Marck Aguilar, a redevelopment specialist with the city, said nearby business owners were most concerned about losing three 15-minute parking spaces near Storke Placita. In order to regain these spaces, he said several 75-minute spaces would be turned into 15-minute slots. No parking changes would occur on De la Guerra Street.

Some fear restricting parking in the area could also limit public access to City Hall.

Although he called the new plan “quite an improvement,” Dennis Rickard said he thought the city had washed its hands of attempts to meddle with the plaza.

Rickard said he feared raising the roadway would be the “Trojan horse” that would eventually lead to closing the plaza to automobiles. He also scolded the council for taking up what he feels is a “huge” matter before several new City Council members take their seats in January.

Despite the fact that the plaza changes are likely several months, or even years from coming to fruition, Rickard called the plans an “affront to the electorate.”

The Santa Barbara Downtown Organization has endorsed the changes, though Bill Collyer, the organization’s executive director, said yesterday he was concerned the improvements could lead to an increased number of special events in the plaza, which could increase the number of days the area is closed to traffic.

In a public comment letter, Collyer urged the city to develop “cautionary guidelines” that would limit loop closures to no more than 12 days per year.

The plaza facelift carries an estimated $2.4 million price tag, a sum that over the last five years has already been earmarked. The money would come from the city’s Redevelopment Agency budget. A city finance expert explained that use of such funds is generally restricted to capital improvement projects, which the plaza project falls under.

Nevertheless, some said dropping millions of dollars on new sidewalks and raised roads in the midst of a deep economic recession that has prompted vast cuts to the city’s budget, is hardly responsible.

“I think we need to be frugal with our remaining [Redevelopment Agency] money,” Francisco said, noting that he supported improvements to sidewalks and relocation of utilities, but not the costly process of raising the roadway. “…We should be doing it as simply as we can.”

Comment on this article

Subject:

Body:

Poster:

Enter text seen above:

Time and Money Better Spent Elsewhere : 11/25/2009

Why not rip out the plaza out and replace it with another dangerous and worthless roundabout!!! The FIesta booths can be adapted for drive-through service !!

Gary Lapman

---

Gary Lapman : 11/25/2009

shut up!

---

Gary Lapman : 11/25/2009

Is an idiot.

---

big surprise : 11/25/2009

Blum's street gets resurfaced annually.

---