Santa Barbara Aggressively Paves in Several Areas prior to shifting funds for New Police Headquarters
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Miles of asphalt have been spread in many locations around Santa Barbara to start the year and some of the funds for those projects will be shifting soon as the city begins building a new police headquarters.
The funds come from a 2017 voter approved Measure C sales tax that generates an estimated $22-million annually. That has smoothed out some concerns about funding key projects. The road work was overdue in several locations with broken roads, potholes, and faded crosswalks.
The work in recent months has brought a fresh look to streets including San Andres, Haley, Victoria, State and Anacapa. In 2023 the city paved 126 blocks.
Cory Cameron lives on Anapamu St. on the Westside and was out front watching the work turn his broken up street into something that was brand new. “I think they are doing their due diligence all around the town. It is just a matter of when they get to certain projects. “
He said they had one vehicle out of the area and one was at home. “They sent all the notifications that they were going to be doing this. We knew it was coming.”
Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez says the voter approved tax for these specific projects is paying off. “I am really grateful that the voters back in the day passed Measure C because otherwise doing improvements like these would be almost impossible to find the funding to make it happen.”
He’s found some residents will be unhappy when the roads are in disrepair and some will be inconvenienced when they are being paved. “People are complaining about how they want to see the work and then when it’s getting done they comment on how disruptive it is to their lives a little bit but it long run it is for the best.”
The city is in the development mode for the new police headquarters on Cota St. at Santa Barbara St. Some of the funds from the same source, Measure C will be shifted towards that project which is expected to exceed $100-million. Work is underway with the tree removal completed, and other site work now taking place.
There will still be funding within Measure C for infrastructure projects based on a priority list.
Measure C also comes with a citizen oversight committee to annually review how much money is coming in and how it is spent.