Where is Santa Barbara going? Is it going to the dogs, with developer Ed St. George leading the pack?
There goes another neighborhood. This time it is the West Beach area, composed of small motor inn type hotels and beach cottages. Mr. St. George’s latest development is at 302-308 E. Montecito St. It goes before the Planning Commission this Thursday at 1 pm.
This complex will be an out-of-place, out-of-scale, three-story (with fourth-floor party deck) concrete monolith. It abuts the property line of the neighbor’s compound, which is three cottages, a generous parking lot and a set-back two-story office building. The proposed hotel will destroy a quaint 1918 Monterey cottage enclave. It was a former motor inn that housed new residents to Santa Barbara as they crossed the country to build their new home. You know, aka history, aka provenance. Must everything we cherish be destroyed in the name of progress?
Please come. Please care. Come see the Jack and the Beanstalk story poles showing where the giant will live.
Please contact the Planning Commission before it’s too late.
