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Council approves single‑family streamlining package to reduce design hearings, raise administrative thresholds
Summary
The Santa Barbara City Council adopted ordinance amendments on April 14 designed to reduce mandatory single‑family design board reviews, consolidate public hearings, and add objective design standards; staff estimated a minimum 24% reduction in projects requiring formal design-review hearings.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously on April 14 to adopt ordinance amendments intended to speed home-improvement permitting and reduce repeated public hearings for single‑family projects.
City planners presented a multi-year effort to revise Single‑Family Design Board (SFDB) rules and related zoning sections. The amendments exempt many exterior alterations that do not increase floor area or result in a new cohesive design, increase administrative approval thresholds (for example, raising the administrative…
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