Fight Develops over Creek and Habitat at Heritage Ridge in Goleta

Development Proposes 104 Low-Income Homes and 228 at Market Rate

As the development evolved, the current architectural style (bottom) is California craftsman with low-pitched gable roofs, exposed beams and rafters, and covered porches for two- and three-story buildings. | Credit: Courtesy City of Goleta

Plans are in the works for 332 new apartments — 104 of them affordable — on one of the last large vacant lots in Goleta, but the property has an unusual problem: water. It’s not the drought or the water entitlement, which the Heritage Ridge development has had since 2002. It’s Los Carneros Creek, which once ran freely across the land, located below the southeast corner of the intersection of Highway 101 and Los Carneros Road. The developers and the Environmental Defense Center are not seeing eye-to-eye over the project’s compliance with the city’s 100-foot creek setback law, an argument that was too complicated for the Planning Commission to decide in a couple hours on Monday evening. The commissioners heard presentations and comments from all the parties, and Chair Jennifer Ferguson continued the hearing to April 25.

Representing the developers, Tim Kihm of TK Consulting said the plans had been through eight revisions, including one that literally moved a building in trying to achieve the 100-foot creek setback Goleta had mandated in 2019. The buildings themselves were modified from rectangular blocks to California craftsman-style buildings, with details offering greater warmth and improved mountain views, he said. The affordable homes ran from studios to three bedrooms, and the market-rate units were one- to three-bedroom apartments. Each grouping contains recreation rooms and outdoor spaces, and one of the market-rate groups has a swimming pool.

The Heritage Ridge site, seen here viewed from the north, will someday hold 332 new homes. A disagreement over the setback for Los Carneros Creek will be discussed at the Goleta Planning Commission’s April 25 meeting. | Credit: Courtesy

The original developer was the Towbes Group several decades ago, which had plans for 360 units of housing. After the death of Michael Towbes in 2017, Redtail Multifamily Land Development bought the land from the Towbes Foundation in March 2020, by which time the project was down to 353 units. In December, Redtail brought the County Housing Authority into the project to take control of the affordable units, for which Redtail would prepare the lots as it worked on the market-rate units on the other half of the property. County Housing Authority is to find funding, build, and manage the low and very low-income homes.