American Riviera Bank announced earlier this week unaudited net income of $11,829,000 for the 12 months ending December 31, 2021. This represents a 60% increase in net income from the $7,378,000 earned in the same reporting period in the prior year. In 2021, the bank achieved an annualized return on average assets of 1.04% and […]
Montecito Water District has announced that this Friday, February 4, they will host a pop-up distribution center for at-home COVID-19 test kits. It will be a drive-through site, where those needing test kits can drive up and will be given one kit per person in their household. The distribution is from 10 am to noon, […]
The Santa Barbara City Council has adopted an ordinance that will provide an additional 22 months, until December 31, 2023, for businesses within city limits –including on Coast Village Road – to operate expanded outdoor business facilities and parklets. The ordinance also authorizes the continued closure of downtown State Street to vehicles while regulatory changes […]
At last week’s Montecito Planning Commission hearing, commissioners voted unanimously to appoint commissioner Ron Pulice as the chair of the Commission. While there was some discussion about Pulice’s current non-resident status – he currently resides elsewhere in the county – it was decided that Pulice would be able to finish his term. Commissioners Susan Keller […]
As part of its Capital Improvements Program, Montecito Water District is upgrading approximately one mile of water main on East Valley Road. The work began earlier this month and is expected to be completed during this summer. Several Montecito residents have expressed frustration that the road construction is taking place just months after Caltrans completed […]
The Santa Barbara Unified School District is making a public effort to attract and recruit more substitute teachers as COVID-19 continues to deplete staff across most places of employment throughout Santa Barbara. The district has raised its pay for substitutes, including $190 per day for daily subs, $210 per day for designated site subs, and […]
In response to our reporting in last week’s edition that the City of Santa Barbara is considering adopting an ordinance that would extend operation of restaurant parklets on Coast Village Road until December 31, 2023, we heard from several local business owners and Montecito residents, all with differing opinions, who said they would like the […]
The proposed 24-hour gatehouse at the entrance of Edgecliff Lane was approved at Montecito Board of Architectural Review last week, after gaining unanimous approval by the Montecito Planning Commission in December. The location of the gatehouse is near the entrance to Hammond’s Beach at the end of Eucalyptus Lane, and will be built adjacent to […]
Montecito’s Letter Perfect at 1150 Coast Village Road is for sale, and owner Leslie Person Ryan is ideally seeking a buyer who would like to keep the 38-year-old business as a stationery and gift store, saying the shop, located prominently in the Villa Fontana shopping center, next to Montecito Deli, has unrealized potential. Ryan, who […]
Montecito boy scout Salvador Hernandez, a senior at Santa Barbara High School, is pursuing the highest advancement award the Boy Scouts of America offers to Scouts: the Eagle Scout Award. Hernandez’ Eagle Service Project is a series of five blood drives in Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Montecito; Hernandez has spent the last several months planning […]
Santa Barbara City staff is recommending to the City Council to adopt an Economic Recovery Extension and Transition Ordinance, which would provide an additional 22 months until December 31, 2023 for businesses within city limits – including on Coast Village Road – to operate expanded outdoor business facilities and parklets. The ordinance also authorizes the […]
Ashley Anderson and Paul Hurst have welcomed esteemed veteran Realtor Fred Bradley to Anderson Hurst Associates, the award-winning real estate partnership at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties in Montecito. Bradley joins the team as Senior Associate, bringing a 40-year track record and a distinguished reputation as a top producer with record-setting sales. As a […]
Nearly 200 Santa Barbara and Montecito residents gathered downtown Tuesday to celebrate the swearing-in of new Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse. The outdoor ceremony, which would normally take place within City Hall, also touched on the work of outgoing Mayor Cathy Murillo, and served to also swear in council members Kristen Sneddon – who represents, […]
The Montecito Association (MA) Board of Directors held its annual meeting this week, appointing new board members and saying goodbye to several retiring board members, as well as reviewing the Association’s activities in 2021. Association president Megan Orloff and executive director Sharon Byrne reported on Association activities for the past year, which included extensive pandemic […]
Senate Bill 9 (aka SB9), which we’ve been reporting on since early 2021, goes into effect this week, with local governments across California scrambling to implement ordinances to attempt to protect, as much as possible, single-family zoning in residential neighborhoods. SB9 was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2021 and became effective January […]
With nearly 350 sales of homes, estates, and condos in the “93108” this year, we saw many record-breaking transactions in all price points. Here is a short list of remarkable sales from 2021: 10. Monarch Lane: $3,895,000 The sale of this three-bedroom, four-bath home in April broke the record for highest-priced sale of an Ennisbrook […]
Montecito and Santa Barbara locals have opened Montecito’s first “meatless” market, PLNT PWRD MRKT (i.e. Plant Powered Market), in Coast Village Walk on Coast Village Road. Borne after owner Tim Morton-Smith and his wife, Kamren, found themselves buying plant-based items mostly online instead of in local stores, the goal of opening the market was to […]
After a more than 13-year journey, plans for renovating and enhancing the Montecito YMCA on Santa Rosa Lane are moving forward once again, amid some angst and concern from neighbors and members of the community at large. With story poles going up earlier this month in anticipation of last week’s Montecito Board of Architectural Review […]
Last week was an exciting moment for the Montecito Trails Foundation as well as the community at large: the last of the bridges to be damaged or destroyed in the 1/9 Debris Flow was replaced, a project nearly four years in the making. “In order to create the best access for the public, we needed […]
Last Thursday officials held a public meeting at Montecito Union School to discuss emergency information prior to the winter storm season. Closing in on the fourth anniversary of the catastrophic debris flow of January 9, 2018, First District Supervisor Das Williams says the community’s level of resiliency, awareness, and communication is better than ever before, […]
As we head into the holiday season, the Montecito real estate market has slowed considerably; as of press time there have been just 39 sales so far in Q4, compared to 99 sales in the same time period last year. Q3 saw a slowdown as well, with 82 sales from July through September, compared to […]
It was a welcome sight, two years in the making: the usual crowd of Montecito locals gathered this past Saturday to trim the giant tree near the Manning Park tennis courts on San Ysidro Road. The tradition took a hiatus last year because of the pandemic; the tree was trimmed quietly by a skeletal crew […]
On November 12, on an enchanting property in Montecito’s Hedgerow kindly donated by the Winn and Twining families, nearly 300 people came together to the Butterfly Ball, an event to support Santa Barbara residents Bill and Victoria Strong and their quest to build a state-of-the-art, truly inclusive playground for kids and adults alike. Gwendolyn’s Playground […]
This Saturday, December 4, Montecito Association presents the first annual Holiday Magic Parade of Lights. Twenty-five cars and vehicles, decked out in their holiday finery, will parade through Montecito beginning at 5:30 pm. The parade route will leave Upper Manning Park, turn onto North Jameson and onto Coast Village Road, through the roundabout onto Hot […]
The Rotary Club of Montecito Foundation has awarded a total of $15,000 to support the work of 15 Santa Barbara-area nonprofit organizations.The grants awarded under the foundation’s annual Community Grants Program were $1,000 each and go to organizations benefitting a wide range of constituents, including children, seniors, low-income families, and animals. All grants are funded […]
Montecito Board of Architectural Review and Montecito Planning Commission have been busy hearing and making decisions about a multitude of residential – and a few commercial – projects in Montecito. MBAR is held via Zoom every three weeks, while MPC meets once a month, also via Zoom. At their hearing last week, the Montecito Planning […]
The last five months have been busy for new Montecito Sanitary District General Manager Bradley Rahrer, who took the reins at the District in June of this year. Rahrer, who was hired after multiple interim managers came and went following the retirement of Diane Gabriel last year, hails from the city of Santa Barbara’s Public […]
Ganna Walska Lotusland and the Lutah Maria Riggs Society are collaborating to screen the award-winning documentary, Lutah – A Passion for Architecture: A Life in Design, this Saturday, November 20, at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. Lutah Maria Riggs is an integral part of Santa Barbara architectural history. Lotusland’s archives contain several drawings by […]
Escrow closed earlier this week on a 6.84-acre property at the top of Temple Street in Summerland; the property has been the subject of much community discussion over the years, as its fate was uncertain until about two months ago, when the Carpinteria/Summerland Unified School District, which has owned the property since 1955, accepted a […]
At this month’s Montecito Association Board of Directors meeting, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Lieutenant Butch Arnoldi reported that Pierre Lafond Market in the Upper Village was broken into earlier this week, in a similar fashion as a burglary that occurred in July. Both glass doors were broken, and suspects removed cash registers and quickly fled […]
Last Wednesday evening, hundreds of Montecito Union School parents, kids, teachers, staff, and members of the Montecito community came out to celebrate the grand opening of its Nature Lab, a project which has been in the works for nearly 15 years. “I want to thank the Montecito Union School board members, past and present, for […]
Montecito Union School will host a ribbon-cutting event this week, to showcase its unique 2.5-acre Nature Lab, a facility that allows its students to grow their own crops, learn outside, and even interact with a tortoise and some chickens. The students at the enviable elementary school were a big part of the process about how […]
After a successful pop-up location over the summer in Montecito Mercantile, Beautyhabit, a company known as a renowned online resource for offering the best in beauty, has launched a full retail location in Montecito Country Mart. The “modern luxe apothecary” concept offers the best in global indie beauty brands, now gathered together for the first […]
In an effort to remain as COVID-safe as possible, Montecito Association is hosting a smaller-than-normal Beautification Day this Saturday, November 7, beginning at 9 am. This year’s event will be based at a new location: the upper green on the corner of East Valley Road and San Ysidro Road, in front of Pierre Lafond. After […]
Nearly a year after the marginal failure of Measure L2020, the $7.8 million Cold Spring School bond measure that was on the ballot last November, school staff, admin, and parents have dusted themselves off to launch a capital campaign to fund a much-needed expansion of the school. “We still have a need. That did not […]
After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghost Village Road, the popular trick-or-treat event along Coast Village Road, is set for this Sunday, Halloween, from 3 pm to 6 pm. While the event typically draws roughly 2,500 costumed kids, parents, and pets each year, it is expected that this year’s event will be […]
Montecito Union School is moving forward with some much-needed – and long anticipated – improvements to campus next summer, which will take over a year to complete. “This project has been fifteen years in the making, and has gone through a huge number of changes,” said Superintendent Anthony Ranii, who sat down with us earlier […]
At this month’s Montecito Association Board Meeting, the Board of Directors touched on many community topics, including fires, crimes, transportation, the holidays, and more. During community reports, Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor, reporting from the front lines of the Alisal Fire, said the 13,000-acre fire (as of press time) was a good reminder for everyone […]
Quickly and quietly opening in time to capture the summer tourism rush, Jeannine’s at the Shore, which opened early July, is the latest – and the largest – outpost opened by Alison Hardey of the Hardey Family, who have operated the locally-owned family bakery business for over 30 years. “We’ve always wanted to be at […]