Local athletes honored
A well-deserved award
Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table gives out monthly awards - A7
Dos Pueblos teacher honored for industrial arts instruction - A3
Our 165th Year
75¢
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More housing needed in SB City Council, Planning Commission discuss new housing standards By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Allison Angeles, leader of the Tamara Mellon truck, holds the truck’s most popular shoe in Montecito thus far, a pair of fuzzy sandals.
Head over heels Luxury footwear truck stops in Montecito
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Not a taco truck, not an ice cream truck, but a shoe truck has pulled up in Montecito, and boasts a luxurious, high-end selection of women’s footwear. The sleek white truck holds Tamara Mellon, a women’s luxury footwear brand from the cofounder of Jimmy Choo. The brand is mostly online, but customers expressed they
wanted an in-person experience, so Tamara Mellon hit the road and drove coast to coast to meet its clients face to face. From boots to pumps to flats to sneakers to sandals, the high-end collection’s cheapest pair of shoes is $450, and can reach up to $995. The Tamara Mellon truck sat at the Montecito Country Mart, at 1016 Coast Village Road, from Oct. 14 through Oct. 20, and is now located in the valet circle of the Miramar Hotel at 1759 S. Jameson
Lane. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. “Montecito was one of the stops we wanted to make because we have a lot of clients here that shop online with us, so we thought it’d be a great experience for our existing customers and new customers to come on board and have this try-on experience which we’re cultivating,” said Allison Angeles, the leader of the shoe truck. Tamara Mellon has two retail
locations, one in Los Angeles and the other in New York City. The truck allows the brand the flexibility to travel and meet its clients where they are. The retail concept is designed to look and feel as though the client is in her own personal shoe closet. The selection is a curation of new arrivals and best sellers, and sizes range from 35 to 42, (five to 12). Ms. Angeles said this wide range is unusual for a luxury Please see heels on A8
New standards for multiunit residential housing were discussed Thursday during a special meeting between the Santa Barbara City Council and the city’s Planning Commission. The new standards are aimed at further incentivizing affordable developments. City staff determined the Santa Barbara area is in need of an additional 8,000 to 10,000 housing units, and staff brainstormed how to increase the number of units with the cost burden and overcrowding in mind. While the city implemented the Average Unit-size Density Incentive Multi-unit Housing Program in 2013, some staff members feel as though there’s an additional need for affordable housing that the program isn’t accomplishing. The city and commissioners discussed five different standards for multi-unit housing, including building size, unit size, adaptive reuse, building heights and incentivizing solar. In regards to size, they discussed floor-to-lot area ratio, and incentivizing rental and affordable housing with different tiers. Tier one would be marketrate condominiums (ownership housing); tier two would be rental
North County city updating general plan By JOSH GREGA
At far left, this pair of sandals is the most popular in Montecito so far, priced at $595. Center, the high-end collection’s cheapest pair of shoes is $450, and can reach up to $995. At left, the Tamara Mellon truck sat at the Montecito Country Mart, at 1016 Coast Village Road, from Oct. 14 through Oct. 20, and is now located in the valet circle of the Miramar Hotel, at 1759 S. Jameson Lane.
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The city of Santa Maria is in the midst of receiving community input for updating its general plan, with virtual online meetings marking the next step in the long process. State law mandates that localities’ general plans be periodically updated, and Santa Maria’s changing circumstances demand this update happen now, according to Mark van de Kamp, public information for the City Manager’s Office. The process of updating Santa Maria’s general plan has thus far consisted of stakeholder meetings and a survey that has received more than 600 responses from Santa Maria community members. The survey asked the public questions on topics from environmental conditions to jobs. It has concluded, but there may be more surveys in the future, according to general plan update project manager Dana Eady. The next step in the update process is digital workshops to receive community feedback. The first will be at 6:30 p.m.on Nov. 11, and the other will be a Spanish speaking-only meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 3. A city’s general plan serves as a blueprint for the kind of development it will experience
over a few decades. The updated plan will guide Santa Maria’s growth through the year 2040. Mr. van de Kamp told the NewsPress that now is the right time to update the general plan because Santa Maria’s approximately 108,000-person population is projected to climb to around 130,000 or 140,000 in the next 15 or 20 years. Accommodating this growth would demand utilizing available land within the city or, if need be, annexing land outside of the city limits. Mr. van de Kamp remarked that the city has not yet identified any parcels of land for annexation. However, according to a summary of 17 stakeholder interviews consulting firm Raimi + Associates did for the general plan update, land the city would consider for annexation is especially on the eastern portion, where there isn’t any prime farmland. Other findings in the summary show that aspects of Santa Maria the stakeholders hope to preserve include the area’s natural resources, young population, and “small town feel.” Opportunities for change in the city that the summary lists include transforming its Broadway corridor into Please see zoning on A8
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What’s next for Santa Maria? NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
At left, Tamara Mellon, a women’s luxury footwear brand from the co-founder of Jimmy Choo, created a “mobile shoe closet” that travels from coast to coast. At right, the selection in the Tamara Mellon truck is a curation of new arrivals and best sellers, including boots, pumps, flats, sneakers and sandals sizes 35 to 42 (five to 12).
housing; and tier three would be affordable housing targeting moderate to low-income residents. They explored micro-units, with the minimum of 220 square feet, and determined them as most appropriate downtown. With adaptive reuse, officials discussed converting existing buildings to residential buildings, and requiring the first floor to be dedicated to commercial use. Next, they discussed building heights. The city charter maximum is 60 feet, and the maximum in the Central Business District is 48, with 45 feet elsewhere. Commissioners asked the council to consider buildings up to 60 feet for certain projects at certain locations, saying the height maximum has become an “unintentional deterrent” for developers. They also proposed transition areas to provide relief from buildings adjacent to smaller scale residential zones, allowing for taller buildings in the interior of blocks downtown. Finally, they proposed incentivizing solar by removing the penalty for installing a solar structure that exceeds the height limit. Planning Commissioner Barrett Reed said he believes the CBD is the most critical and should be prioritized.
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Wednesday’s SUPER LOTTO: 9-10-16-31-46 Meganumber: 27
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