Barney’s On the Beat

By: Barney Brantingham

Pro-Growth City: If there’s any doubt that
Santa Barbara is a pro-development, go-go pro-growth town, check
the 5-2 vote to okay the Veronica Meadows home project. (Or, drive
along lower Chapala Street.) The City Council, after twice turning
up its collective nose at Mark Lee’s 52-home project on Las Positas
Road, liked it a lot last week. Even though Lee is now promising
two “affordable” units, critics term it “oversized homes for people
with oversized incomes,” in the words of The Independent’s Nick
Welsh.

Councilmember Brian Barnwell, one of the five voters, was so
excited that he ran around to the planning, parks and recreation,
and transportation staffs delivering donuts and leaving notes of
praise like this one: “Thank you, planning staff, for approval of
St. Francis and Veronica Meadows.” But then someone, identified to
me as a St. Francis opponent, happened to waltz into the planning
office and spotted the goodies and note.