Big changes are coming to State Street.
However, like any fun road trip, no one knows exactly where it’s headed.
The Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association is speeding forward with its effort to reopen State Street to vehicles for one lane, one way, going north.
The group, which is comprised of property owners downtown, has used Placer.ai data, which uses analytics to monitor pedestrian visitation trends, and plans to approach the City Council next week. The technology tracks people based on smart phone movement, and is also used to track commuter trends in vehicles.
At the same time, the city has abruptly terminated its consultant contract with MIG, the consultant it hired under a $780,000 contract to manage the State Street Master Plan. The City Council on Tuesday plans to hire a new consultant to finish out the remaining part of the contract.
The city paid MIG $570,000, leaving about $210,000 on the contract.
“Following an evaluation of project progress and scope alignment, the City has terminated its contract with MIG, Inc.,” Tess Harris, State Street master planner, wrote in a memo to the city. “To ensure high-quality design outcomes and timely completion of the services left incomplete under the now terminated MIG Inc. Agreement, staff recommends
amending and adding services to the existing Agreement No. 22500182 with Elizabeth
Moule & Stefanos Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists.”
The council on Tuesday also is expected to be asked to approve an additional $343,250 for a new not-to-exceed amount of $417,450. The release of the Master Plan is now set for early 2026, about three years after its initial release. A State Street Master Plan Advisory Committee met nearly two dozen times.
The termination of the MIG contract and the push to open State Street to vehicles are the latest flashpoints in a controversy that never seems to run out of gas. City staff abruptly closed eight blocks of State Street shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, and five years later the street is still closed, except for the 1200 block.
The city has had several start-stops, with rifts occurring between restaurants and retailers over outdoor dining. Although vehicles are no longer on State Street between the 500 and 1100 blocks, the street at any given moment is dominated by people on e-bikes, cruising the street, sometimes aggressively for show.
Most of the pedestrians have moved back to the sidewalks. Others in the community have said the lack of an open street to vehicles has contributed to an overall decline in the quality and culture of State Street, once the most popular street in Santa Barbara.
Amid all of this, the city is facing a budget shortfall in the next two years, even with the passage of Measure I, the half-cent sales tax increase approved a year ago. Transient occupancy taxes are expected to be lower than projected.
The Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement District is fed up with the delay and its members are trying to use data to show that the street is in decline.
Annual visits between Haley and Victoria streets remain roughly 600,000 below pre-pandemic levels, even after five years of recovery, according to Robin Elander, executive director of the group. The number of visitors has increased year by year since the pandemic but have not recovered.
“In contrast, other corridors that remained open to vehicles — Milpas Street, Upper State Street and Coast Village Road — have all exceeded their pre-pandemic visitation,” Elander said.
According to the data Elander shared with Noozhawk, the southern blocks of State Street, the 500 and 600 blocks, saw modest gains between October 2018 and last month — up 7.1% and 18.2%, respectively.
Visitation levels, however, decline sharply farther up the corridor, Elander said.
De la Guerra to Canon Perdido streets dropped by more than 22%. Carrillo to Figueroa streets dropped by 8%, and the upper blocks between Figueroa and Victoria streets saw declines exceeding 20%.
“These data reinforce the key reason flow is important,” Elander said. “We serve more than a mile of State Street downtown, and the activity does not naturally extend up State Street under current conditions.”
Elander said State Street’s recovery lags behind comparable commercial areas, underscoring the need for a “balanced, flexible design that restores circulation, accessibility and vibrancy throughout the full length of downtown while keeping the joyful elements.”
The Downtown Improvement Association is also asking for retractable bollards, so the street can easily open or close for events and happenings such as farmers markets and parades, as well as “clearly defined” spaces for pedestrians and cyclists to keep everyone safe and comfortable.
“I hope that this proposed balanced, flexible approach can reunite our community and help build a vibrant, thriving downtown for generations to come while retaining the goal of a grand paseo, pedestrian-focused downtown,” Elander said.
The group has launched an online petition that it plans to present to the City Council on Tuesday.
Separately, Strong Towns Santa Barbara also has launched an online petition to keep State Street closed to vehicles.
