A twist in a SoCal housing battle

Planned apartments in Santa Barbara draw ire, then legislation in an unusual legal saga.

- BY DAKOTA SMITH AND JACK FLEMMING

Photographs by KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

AN AERIAL view in November of the proposed location for an eight-story apartment tower behind the Santa Barbara Old Mission.

Outraged Santa Barbara residents jumped into action when a developer unveiled plans last year for a towering apartment complex within sight of the historic Old Mission.

They complained to city officials, wrote letters and formed a nonprofit to try to block the project. Still, the developer's plans went forward.

Then something unusual happened.

Four hundred miles away in Sacramento, state lawmakers quietly tucked language into an obscure budget bill requiring an environmental impact study of the proposed development — which housing advocates allege was an attempt to block the project.

The legislation, Senate Bill 158, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, didn't mention the Santa Barbara project by name. But the provision was so detailed and specific it couldn't apply to any other development in the state.

The fallout was swift: The developer sued the state, and a Santa Barbara lawmaker, the powerful new president of the state Senate, is under scrutiny over her role in the bill.

The saga highlights the governor’s and state Legislature’s growing influence in local housing decisions, and the battle between cities and Sacramento to address California's critical housing shortage.

In the face of California's high cost of housing and rent, state leaders are increasingly passing new housing mandates that require cities and counties to accelerate the construction of new housing and ease the barriers impeding developers.

In this case, the law targeting the Santa Barbara development does the opposite by making it harder to build.

'A horrendous nightmare'