City Council Punts American Indian Health’s Plans to Planning Commission
Santa Barbara Medical Clinic Seeks Zoning Change to Move Operations to State Street Army Reserve Property
Scott Black of American Indian Health & Services ran into the buzz saw of doubt and skepticism at the hands of the Santa Barbara City Council Tuesday night over a major zoning change he was seeking at one of the busiest intersections in Santa Barbara. By the end of the night, their request would be punted to the Planning Commission.
Black and his medical clinic — which now serves 7,000 low-income, uninsured, and underinsured patients out of a sprawling warren of offices in the El Mercado shopping complex — has just acquired the long-dormant Army Reserve property, at the intersection of State Street and Las Positas Road. For decades, the federal government owned this land, allowing it to lay fallow.
Black now wants to move his clinic operation there from El Mercado. The appeal is obvious. The Army Reserve building, which had been declared surplus property by the federal government, was once a military hospital, is located on a major bus route, and has an abundance of parking spaces.
