I need a new couch. Nothing fancy, just a comfortable place to lie down and take a break from all this sitting. And sofas, like shoes and mattresses, are tricky to buy online. Better to find the right fit in person. So I tried shopping downtown. It didn’t go well.

Santa Barbara has a handful of airy showrooms filled with beautiful fabrics, elegant designs, and $5,000 couches. It also has thrift stores and a futon shop. But none carry quite what I’m looking for. “There’s nothing in between,” said Lars Kieler, owner of Habitat Home & Garden, a stylish but affordable San Luis Obispo–based furniture company trying to open a location on State Street. “You guys don’t have anything like that here.” He’s right.

I’d like to give Kieler my business ​— ​and Santa Barbara my sales tax. But Kieler, like so many downtown retailers, finds himself trapped in the red-tape straitjacket of the city’s Community Development Department. He’s spent nearly 18 months and a big chunk of his budget battling building officials over what started as a simple bathroom relocation in the property he’s leasing at the corner of State and East Gutierrez Street.