Housing and Flooding Discussed at Land Use 

At this month’s Montecito Association Land Use Committee meeting, chair Bill Babbitt introduced Cindy Chvatal, who will be working with the committee regarding affordable housing requirements and initiatives in Montecito. 

Babbitt explained there are three different ways the state of California is trying to add to affordable housing supply: the Housing Element and RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) Numbers, which is when the state mandates how many units each community needs to build; SB9 and SB10, which allow lot splits in residential zones; and ADU rules, which allow accessory dwelling units to be built with only ministerial review. Chvatal is a member of United Neighbors, a coalition of neighborhoods across the state working to protect multi-family and single-family neighborhoods while supporting affordable housing; she will be helping the MA tackle some of these issues. 

Also at the meeting: First District Supervisor Das Williams’ rep Darcel Elliott reported that a community meeting is scheduled for November 29 at 5:30 pm at Cold Spring School to discuss a Flood Control Master Plan for Montecito. The County of Santa Barbara is beginning a multi-phase project to investigate flood mitigation options, starting with developing a plan for the community of Montecito. A Flood Mitigation Master Plan will be created to guide the planning, design, and construction of improvements to mitigate flooding and flood water impacts to the community. The plan will investigate potential solutions and improvements for flooding in Montecito, for the drainage areas associated with Montecito Creek, Oak Creek, San Ysidro Creek, Romero Creek, and their tributaries. The recent removal of the Debris Nets will likely be brought up at this meeting. 

At next week’s Montecito Association Board of Directors meeting, there will be a discussion with local officials about the winter storms forecasted for our area. To learn more about Montecito Association, visit www.montecitoassociation.org.