Coast Village News

Earlier this week drivers may have been caught in heavy traffic in lower Montecito, as Caltrans crews closed the Hot Springs exit at Highway 101 in order to clear out a long-term homeless encampment located under the freeway bridges. 

The massive encampment had not been cleared in over three years. The Coast Village Association, the Montecito Association, and the City of Santa Barbara have been working together to enlist Caltrans to clear the encampment; signs were posted in the encampment last week that the clean up would take place. According to MA executive director Sharon Byrne, who helped organize the clean up and participated in recent “homeless counts” earlier this year, over 70 homeless were in the encampment back in January with approximately 40-50 there in June; it’s estimated that over five tons of trash and debris was removed by crews this week. Byrne added that the clean up of the encampment may increase the presence of homeless on Coast Village and in surrounding areas, as well as in the upper village. 

At a recent presentation from the Santa Barbara Police Department to the board of the Coast Village Association, the police encouraged everyone and anyone to call and report any activity or person that is contributing to the blight, whether in loud, unstable behavior, trespassing, encampment, or uninvited use of private property. The non-emergency phone number for the SB Police is 805-897-2300. Police officers and detectives managing this population out in the field urge people to call if they feel threatened or intimidated. “Such calls may not result in immediate attention and response to a specific incident; frankly, such calls are so prolific throughout the community that the thin resources of the SBPD rarely have the bandwidth to respond quickly,” said Bob Ludwick, president of the Coast Village Association. “But the log of such calls is vitally important to decision-makers and the policies they implement to deal with ‘the homeless problem.’” 

Also on the radar of the Coast Village Association, Coast Village Road merchants, and Montecito residents living near the lower village: an upcoming paving project on Coast Village Circle, which is expected to last about two months. The project is in response to the 1/9 debris flow, which caused major damage to the roadway on Coast Village Circle due to flooding and the presence of heavy equipment. The project will replace the base and pavement layers of the road, as well as damaged curbs. New curb will be installed to improve drainage flow, and the parking stalls will be repaved and restriped. 

The CVA’s Traffic Committee has been working with the City of Santa Barbara to improve the traffic conditions on Coast Village Circle, as part of the repaving project. Derrick Bailey, the City’s Principal Transportation Engineer, reports that the parking spots on the east side of Coast Village Circle (near the Chevron Station) will be eliminated in order to allow for better traffic flow. The stripe that separates the lanes on Coast Village Circle will also be removed, as this is proven to slow traffic down, according to Bailey. “One of our biggest issues is that people speed down Coast Village Circle while avoiding traffic back-ups on Coast Village Road, and it’s quite dangerous considering there are many pedestrians in the area walking to and from their vehicles,” said Thorn Robertson, chair of the CVA Traffic Committee. 

The project was slated to begin in late August, but at the request of the CVA, the work has been delayed until after Labor Day in an effort to avoid compounding the already heavy summer traffic on Coast Village Road. The work will begin the week of September 9, in order for the project to be completed before the funding deadline set by FEMA. The work will be broken down into five phases to minimize traffic and parking impacts; each phase will take approximately eight working days, and will be open to traffic after the completion of each phase. Phase 1 is near the Chevron Station, with Phase 5 being the far eastern section of Coast Village Circle. At the completion of all phases, the contractor will need to add the finishing paving material for the entire road which will take about a week, then striping will follow shortly after.