To the editor: The aerial view of the Santa Barbara Previous Mission accompanying the article on the eight-story housing undertaking proposed at 505 East Los Olivos St. is the proper illustration of why this undertaking is a horrible concept (“State lawmakers focused a Santa Barbara improvement. Then got here the fallout,” Dec. 2).
Throughout the Jesusita fireplace of 2009, your entire mountainous panorama behind the mission was in flames. Eighty houses and quite a few outbuildings have been destroyed. Individuals from as far-off as Montecito have been pressured to evacuate through Foothill Highway and Mission Canyon Highway, which begins at East Los Olivos Road, basically the place the undertaking is proposed. Individuals have been additionally streaming down Mountain Drive and Alameda Padre Serra. Each start reverse the proposed undertaking website.
The mission was significantly threatened by this hearth and was saved as a result of the erratic 40 to 60-mph winds shifted on the final second.
At conferences and workshops that I attended on the time, visitors engineers testified through the 2015 “Mission Canyon Multimodal Enchancment Plan” proposal that East Los Olivos Road and Mission Canyon Highway can’t be widened. The reason being that this may create a choke level the place East Los Olivos Road curves across the mission and funnels right into a two-lane metropolis road. It’s higher to maintain visitors flowing at a continuing fee.
Now, think about at the least 250 further residents of the proposed eight-story undertaking attempting to evacuate on the intersection of East Los Olivos Road and Alameda Padre Serra.
As a result of Los Angeles just lately skilled devastating fires in Pasadena and Altadena with situations much like these in Santa Barbara, it’s straightforward to image how a tragedy might unfold right here close to the mission. The article’s principal focus was the horrendous aesthetic nightmare of a undertaking of this scale looming over the historic mission. The hearth hazard is equally horrendous.
Susan Chamberlin, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: Permit me to dispute among the assertions on this article that downplay the potential impacts of the “builder’s treatment” initiatives right here in Santa Barbara.
Firstly, though housing right here is problematic and painfully costly, and though there are definitely rich enclaves, Santa Barbara is just not a strictly upscale neighborhood because the strains for the meals financial institution and different information attest. It might’ve been good to see that perspective mirrored.
The proposed initiatives are so poorly and dangerously sited and designed that they might by no means move muster below regular circumstances. In the meantime, the town is transferring ahead with quite a few further housing initiatives via correct procedures.
The necessity for extra housing shouldn’t allow the development of inappropriately sited and designed buildings that will degrade the character of our neighborhood. The {photograph} of the mission ought to have included an overlay of the proposed undertaking. That may say greater than my phrases can categorical.
Michele Harris Padron, Santa Barbara
