The Guadalupe City Council unanimously approved moving forward with the Dunes of Vista Apartments, a proposed seven-unit affordable housing project at 855 Pioneer Street.
The project is being proposed by the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara, also known as HASBARCO.
The three-story, multifamily residential building would be located in an R-3 high-density residential zone.
The building is anticipated to use modular construction, which city staff said could allow the housing units to be brought to the community more quickly.
Residents would have access to common laundry facilities, as well as a shared outdoor area with tables, benches and barbecue facilities.
Under Guadalupe's zoning rules, the site would normally allow five housing units.
Contract Planning Director Larry Appel said the additional units are tied to the project's affordability requirements.
“They’re using a mandated program called bonus density, and what it says is that if a developer asks to have more units than are allowed under zoning, that they need to provide them as affordable,” Appel said.
Because of the project's use of the state Density Bonus Law, the developer is also requesting five concessions or incentives from the city.
Those include a reduced rear-yard setback, elimination of private open space requirements, reduced parking, increased building height, and allowing parking within the front-yard setback.
Parking is one of the issues raised about the project.
A development like this would normally require 14 parking spaces, including seven spaces that would need to be covered by carports or garages. Under the proposed concession, the project would have eight uncovered spaces.
Appel said that reduction would have an impact.
“In this case, instead of having 14 spaces, they have eight spaces, so that’s a big reduction,” Appel said.
Some Guadalupe residents said they want the city to consider how additional housing could affect the existing neighborhood.
“They’re not thinking about the full spectrum,” Guadalupe resident Courtney Cazenave said. “We want to live right and have nice neighborhoods and not congested streets like anybody else.”
Other residents said the need for affordable housing outweighs some of those concerns.
“Just like everything, there is a downside to it, with the parking, extra traffic that it brings, but overall, I feel like the need for the housing outweighs all the negative effects that come with it,” Guadalupe resident Chris Barajas said.
The next step is for HASBARCO to submit a building permit application to the city.
