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What's Next?
updated: Jul 02, 2012, 7:01 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

I see that some construction has begun on the old Vons building on Victoria & Chapala. Anyone know what'll be moving in?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 293582	2012-07-02 07:12 PM
About 500 people.
COMMENT 293586	2012-07-02 07:25 PM
Hopefully some high-end condos that are not killed by mandated inclusionary low-income units, like all the last downtown mixed use residential white elephant projects. The last gasps of your former progressive city council - downtown developer death zones.
COMMENT 293595	2012-07-02 07:48 PM
If you google it you'll find that it is going to be shops and housing. According to noozhawk, "The new building will feature more than 36,000 square feet of commercial space for a European-style market and retail stores. The second and third stories will house 37 new condos, totaling 23,000 square feet, and 78 park spots will be underground."
COMMENT 293596	2012-07-02 07:48 PM
Actually, I hope it's not condos or living areas at all....it was SUPPOSED to be a fish and permanent farmer's market. That sounds good to me. I don't want to see any more housing in the already dense downtown area. I want to see something we can all use...that's a good use of development, 586...it serves us all well.
COMMENT 293602P	2012-07-02 08:44 PM
293586 - It would be nice if facts were the subject and not ad hominems. It really is annoying.
COMMENT 293610P	2012-07-02 09:56 PM
596: the high end housing was approved by the Planning Commission back in 2010. Read about it here; owned by a San Francisco developer, the project was designed by architect Brian Cearnal. There will be a market for the occupants of the new development.
COMMENT 293612P	2012-07-02 09:58 PM
It would have been nice if it had stayed a Von's and stayed open. It actually had a good old fashioned parking lot that people could actually park in and the prices were lower than the competition. Plus it was much closer in walking distance than Ralph's is for many of us. Planning at its worse.
COMMENT 293619P	2012-07-03 04:21 AM
602, agreed. MSM is already full of them, ad hominems that is.
COMMENT 293627	2012-07-03 06:51 AM
High density downtown housing actually reduces overall carbon footprint-- commuting times, parking needs, etc. Santa Barbara has comparatively little compared to other cities.
COMMENT 293629	2012-07-03 07:00 AM
627 - Sure it does. Just how everyone wants to live. No kids no pets no yard.
COMMENT 293634	2012-07-03 07:16 AM
I was hoping for a hometown rink for the Mission City Brawlin Betties.
COMMENT 293637P	2012-07-03 07:21 AM
For persons such as me: Definition of AD HOMINEM: appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect
COMMENT 293638	2012-07-03 07:28 AM
What's annoying, 293602P, are people that aren't quite sure what a particular latin phrase means or how to properly use it in a sentence, but they go ahead and do it anyway. Quod erat demonstrandum.
COMMENT 293644	2012-07-03 07:55 AM
Touché, 640. Now off to the deleted side with us all. Looks like Edhat has hired several more nannies recently. The deleted pages are getting bigger than comments pages.
COMMENT 293654	2012-07-03 08:33 AM
293650 - True, but it seems like starting last night someone at the nanny deletion desk was a little over-zealous. Comments were getting sliced and diced, left and right. If you weren't 100% on point and non-sarcastic, off with your head. Not that I really care.
COMMENT 293667	2012-07-03 09:02 AM
Back to the point, this looks like a great development and is a good location for mixed use. It increases the tax base and keeps downtown vibrant without adding significant congestion or urban sprawl. I live close-by and love the fact I can walk or bike just about everywhere any time of day (not so with most downtowns).
COMMENT 293670	2012-07-03 09:04 AM
An opportunity to improve the downtown cooridor with a multi-use complex. It is designed to produce an economy that provides services, even to all the people who complain about cutbacks. May it not be encumbered by the same fear mongers who rather see every building empty such as you see at Cabrillo and State. (Calif. Hotel. BeBob Burger, etc.) May it also provide needed revenue to the HUGE parking structure at the Granada.
COMMENT 293678	2012-07-03 09:22 AM
Speaking of multi-use complexes, does anyone know how full/empty the one on the corner of Chapala & Gutierrez is?
COMMENT 293686P	2012-07-03 09:35 AM
Bella Riviera is nearing completion and whenever I drive past it, it really bothers me how it seems to loom over Mitcheltorena. I sure hope that there is a more aesthetic implementation of setbacks for this. Yeah, if someone could fill us in on Chapala One, I'd be interested!
MTNDRIVER	2012-07-03 10:03 AM
Thanks for the link, 610P. I assume the project hasn't changed in the two years since it was approved? Hard to believe they can get 37 condos into that space, unless it's going to fill the entire site. Four stories, pretty high. And underground parking. There'll be an awful lot of noise around the neighborhood during construction.
COMMENT 293705	2012-07-03 10:12 AM
@293612P If you think that Vons closed because of planning, you are mistaken. And then you apparently take your own mistaken belief and magnify it into a general view about planning. In the end, this will lead to more and more false beliefs.
COMMENT 293719	2012-07-03 10:33 AM
32 market rate condos and 5 free-ride subsidized condos guaranteed to sink this project just like this inclusionary housing give-away schemes tanked Paseo Chapala and Chapala One. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Law of Unintended Consequences handing out goodies for the few jeopardizes the benefits for the whole. The city had no business getting into the housing market with their social agenda because none of them ever ran a large successful business or engaged in large market projects. One more high rise slum for Santa Barbara with empty store fronts and negative impacts on city retail sales tax. It is too bad the tail of failed prior city councils can mess up our city for so long afterwards. Audit the former city council's inclusionary housing mandate and either revise, it or get rid of it now.
COMMENT 293738	2012-07-03 11:01 AM
719, are you seriously suggesting that five low-income/subsidized units will make the development a slum? Not to be rude or anything but maybe you should get out of Santa Barbara more...
COMMENT 293762	2012-07-03 11:57 AM
You get the slum because these inclusionary unit projects attract out of town owners for the market rate units who don't care and later will pay next to nothing for later building up keep. Selling these units to out of town landlords will create the exact same slums that out of town landlords have inflicted on our community all over town. And because the inclusionary units get to pay subsidized maintenance fees too, they can hardly support the long-term building maintenance needs either, once they buy in at their subsidized rates. The first wave of investors in these urban planning white elephants move in quick and dirty, make their profits and sell out ahead of the building's decline. And that is how you get slums. Inclusionary units defy all principles of real property stewardship.
TWO ABBYS	2012-07-03 12:25 PM
Does anyone know if the mural/mosaic is going to be preserved?
COMMENT 293776	2012-07-03 12:26 PM
37 units / 23,000 sf = 620+ sf per unit. Thats about 25' x 25'...a generous double car garage. Are these numbers right?
COMMENT 293778	2012-07-03 12:27 PM
TWO ABBYS: Yes, it's supposed to be moved so that it runs along Chapala St. rather than Victoria St. On the wall of the Public Market. While I'm here again, here are a pair of links with some basic renders of the project. Santa Barbara Public Market. Alma del Pueblo.
COMMENT 293804	2012-07-03 01:28 PM
Chapala One is still empty. Why would anyone think a new mixed use development is a good idea when we've already got one sitting vacant?
AUNTIE S.	2012-07-03 01:41 PM
I kind of like the old Santa Barbara feel of a neighborhood market that can be easily accessed by the folks who live in the older houses and small apartments near downtown (mid-town Chapala/de la Vina streets, for instance). Agree that the new Riviera condos are too much. Let's maintain the things that made Santa Barbara an attractive small town place to live.
COMMENT 293883P	2012-07-03 04:40 PM
705-Von's closed because of a lack of planning. If you want a city that is walkable, you must plan for that. People will walk a certain distance to a store to shop. Take away a grocery store and people will have to walk further. The number of people now walking to the remaining store is less than when there were two stores because for many people the store will now be out of walking range. Proper planning for a walkable city calls for nodes of retail placed throughout the city within walking range of the residents.
COMMENT 293934	2012-07-03 07:01 PM
Von's closed because all the pious local shoppers refused to cross their picket lines when the unions were knee-capping them for unlimited free health insurance with no cap. So the pious local shoppers went to non-union Trader Joe's instead. Go figure the virtuous logic of that one. Von's told these pious shoppers, we don't need you either. Bye. Be sure and check out the health benefits the workers in this new yuppie market are getting and what the prices are for the food all the low-income seniors used to depend on Vons to provide. Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences. City did a number on this one.
COMMENT 294049	2012-07-04 11:12 AM
WE NEED A ROLLER RINK HERE!

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