Santa Barbara Airport committee reviews climate adaptation plan emphasizing near-term flood measures

Santa Barbara City staff and outside consultants on Monday presented a draft Climate Adaptation Plan for Santa Barbara Airport that prioritizes near-term measures to reduce flood risk from intense rainfall and creek overflows.

"We're looking at what we could do in the immediate near term to assuage the flooding problems we've had at the airport," said Jessica Metzger, the airport project planner managing the plan, as she opened the presentation. Metzger said the vulnerability assessment supporting the plan was a two-year effort and that the materials are available online.

The plan maps airport assets and models hazards including historic and recent flooding, altered creek capacity and sea-level rise. Metzger noted the airport closed three times during recent storms — twice in 2025 and once in 2026 — and that precipitation modeling shows events that historically occurred every 20 years could occur as often as every five years going forward.

Consultant Nick Garrity described a menu of near-term adaptation measures focused on the Goleta Slough and creeks that drain to…