The La Cumbre Plaza shopping center in Santa Barbara, home to retail stores like Williams Sonoma and restaurants like Islands, may soon have hundreds of new neighbors as two new housing developments are set to take over former big box retail shops.
"I don't care, this mall is on a death march as it is," said resident Karen McFadden.
McFadden has lived in Santa Barbara for 40 years and says her biggest concern is parking.
"This is the perfect place to do redevelopment. There's plenty of parking, there's plenty of access, and there's plenty of room, so I'm all for it. I think it's fine," she explained.
Resident Kaduko Kerby says she’s just happy to see the space being used at all.
"It’s been empty for so long. Someone might as well use it, right?" Kerby said.
Santa Barbara City Contract Planner Patsy Price says the empty Sears building and parking lot are in the pre-application phase for a proposed 443 rental housing development.
"So the entire Sears building will go away. The site will be redeveloped. And then one thing that we'll be looking at as the city is how the project will integrate with the existing mall, which will remain at this point," Price said.
Price says the new development will offer 400 rental units at market rate and 43 at moderate-income rates.
"They also proposed to provide an improved walkway along nearby Arroyo Burro Creek, which runs along the east side of the property, for a walking path and biking path along the creek," Price added.
There will also be 466 parking spaces in a garage and surface lot.
"This area has been long planned for this level of development through a redevelopment as housing, and so we're starting to see that come to fruition," Price said.
As of last Thursday, Price says the Macy’s building, just a few steps away, received a completed application for development set to bring another 680 housing units to the shopping mall in 2028.
"So the city is beginning an environmental review and analysis of policy consistency for that project," Price said.
The Sears building project will be presented to the city’s architectural board of review for a pre-application review on March 3.
