Project planner responds to criticism of revitalization details
De la Guerra Plaza boasts a green lawn after the recent storms. Critics of the city of Santa Barbara’s revitalization plan, which includes replacing the lawn with a hardscape, have objected to changing the plaza’s historical nature.
When Brad Hess met with the Historic Landmarks Commission earlier this month to give an update on the proposed De la Guerra Revitalization project, the last thing he expected was to be met with criticism about features that had already been approved.
He was just there to talk about two items that hadn’t yet been reviewed: a planned pavilion to be built between the Santa Barbara City Hall and the News-Press building and landscaping at the entrance to City Hall.
Of course, there’s no way he could have predicted what speakers would say during the public comment period. He just never expected some HLC members to join in that criticism.
Now, in an exclusive interview with the News-Press, Mr. Hess, the project’s principal planner, is responding for the first time to that criticism, which included harsh comments about one of the project’s proposed features: a bubbler fountain.
“The bubbler — please spare me,” Rosanne Crawford said during the public comment period at the HLC meeting. “This is not a modern building. This is not a park. This is De la Guerra Plaza.
“The bubbler is absolutely atrocious. It’s hideous.”
Some HLC members agreed.
De la Guerra Plaza would get a new look, including a bubbler fountain, under the city of Santa Barbara’s plan.
“The water feature, I cannot support it,” Commissioner Ed Lenvik said. “It does not belong here. It does not fit the historic complement of the plaza. It needs to go away.”
Mr. Hess, however, defended the bubbler’s inclusion in the project’s design.
“The bubbler fountain was generally supported by the commission last time we met with them, and this time it wasn’t as much,” he said. “This is a program feature that originated from the community outreach early in the process and was strongly supported by the Advisory Committee. And while some complaints talked about the historic nature of the plaza and this not fitting in, when it’s off, no one will know it’s there.
“But on warm to hot days, this will be a nice feature for the space as it will cool it down, allow people to appreciate the added ambiance, and will be a draw for families to this space. We are not proposing a splash pad for a park. We are proposing a subtle feature for a civic plaza that will only add to the space when desired. The vast majority of time, the fountain will be off.”
Commissioner Lenvik also questioned the wisdom of putting proposed restrooms in Storke Placita, the area that connects State Street to the plaza near the News-Press building.
“They would restrict physical access from the State Street Promenade to the plaza,” he said. “There’s got to be a better solution to that.”
Mr. Hess said the decision to locate them in Storke Placita was backed by the commission the last time they got together.
“While they brought this topic up again and asked us to look into putting them in the new pavilion building, the pavilion building will not be a better location than the proposed location for several reasons: proximity to State Street, slightly off the plaza so it’s not in the plaza, safety with better lighting, plumbing and sewer connections, etc.
“We looked at many locations over and over, and the proposed location in Storke Placita is the preferred location,” he said. “Again, no controversy in our minds.”
Mr. Hess told the News-Press he was surprised to hear such HLC criticism over design elements like the bubbler and restrooms because they’d already been reviewed and supported by the board.
“Because we had received general consensus at the previous meeting from HLC on the restroom location, the surface materials, the bubbler fountain and the underground trash enclosures, and because we only have 15 minutes for our presentation, we focused on the two outstanding items that required attention: the pavilion building and the landscaping in front of City Hall,” he said.
“We didn’t have time to go over what was already agreed upon, and it is generally understood that the project is to move forward based on what was previously discussed and agreed to. This is why the minutes from the previous meeting are read at the beginning so that everyone recalls what was agreed to. So yes, it was a bit frustrating to have many of these design elements brought back up and questioned in the context of HLC ‘comments,’ since we are not given the opportunity to respond to their comments, only their questions.”
Commissioner Lenvik, however, didn’t just confine his criticism to previously-discussed project elements. He also had negative things to say about the proposed pavilion building that Mr. Hess had just discussed.
The goal of erecting the building on the site, Mr. Hess said, is to create an edge to the plaza where landscaping now exists, hide the city hall parking lot, erect a building that provides a backdrop for a small permanent stage, and create another space for activity.
Commissioner Lenvik wasn’t impressed, especially with the idea of putting a stage in the plaza that would sit just a few feet off the ground.
In addition, he questioned how people with disabilities would be able to access the building without a wheelchair ramp being installed.
He suggested the project’s architect come up with something else to solve the problem.
“You don’t put up a bad building,” he said. “That structure does not belong there.”
Mr. Hess, though, said creating an edge to the plaza “is consistent with virtually every plaza in the world — edged by buildings, usually civic in nature with commercial buildings and/or restaurants to activate the edges. The hole we have at that edge is currently landscaped, but it used to have buildings there, the Harmer adobe being one of them, and they were removed long ago. The desire is to have the edge return …”
As for access to the building for those with disabilities, “the statement from Commissioner Lenvik was that it was a requirement to have full accessibility at all entrances and asked us why we were ignoring this requirement,” Mr. Hess said. “The answer is, we are providing full accessibility to the building by providing the accessible entry to the building and an accessible path from the parking space. By doing so, we are fulfilling the accessibility requirement.
“An ADA ramp already exists on the plaza side of the building, so we will not be adding a ramp. Instead, we will modify the existing ramp on the plaza side to make it more compliant and take out the very slippery tile. It will be a nice improvement.”
In the end, the HLC voted 6-2 with one abstention to continue the project as it is currently designed. Commissioners Lenvik and Cass Ensberg voted against it.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” Commissioner Lenvik said. “Extremely disappointed. Let’s come up with something appropriate to Santa Barbara. This is a very simple plaza. What we’ve come up with is way too busy. This thing is a zebra of multiple colors. It is not appropriate for Santa Barbara.”
Ms. Crawford agreed.
“This is a historic landmark,” she said during the public comment period. “This is Santa Barbara. There’s time to get it right. I think this has to go back to the drawing board.”
Other public speakers suggested the revitalization be postponed — or even scrapped.
“This is an awful plan. Period,” Rich Untermann said. “It is not historic. I don’t think we should try it right now when we don’t know what State Street is going to look like.
“People have tried to change it, but they haven’t. I agree. I don’t think we should. We should postpone it. It’s been there 100 years. We have plenty of time. What’s another five years?”
Paulina Conn said if the revitalization goes through as currently planned, “this whole plaza will be an eyesore within a year.
“The plaza we have now has lasted 100 years,” she said. “All it needs is repair and maintenance.”
Such criticism wasn’t confined to the HLC meeting.
“There are many in-the-know Santa Barbarans who are vehemently opposed to this nightmare,” Pam Boehr wrote in an email to the News-Press. “And so many are totally unaware of this mini-Disneyland proposal by our city council and mayor.
“Find out the numerous aspects: loss of parking (60 spaces), the fact that it is historic and shouldn’t be touched, hardscape rather than lawn, closing traffic from Anacapa to State Street, etc. The list goes on and on.”
In response, Mr. Hess insisted he and other project proponents “have been encouraged by the progress and the overall positive input we’ve received from the community, the city council recently (and in the past), and virtually everyone I speak with in general conversation.
“There are, however, a number of people who do not want anything done to this plaza, and they also happen to be the people who write in and show up.”
He declined to comment on Ms. Boehr’s opinions “other than to say that ‘nightmare’ and ‘mini-Disneyland’ are very interesting descriptions. I obviously don’t agree with those assessments.”
He suggested people compare the existing condition of the plaza with what is being proposed.
Currently, the plaza sits empty, frequently only by the city’s homeless. On a recent outing to the plaza, a visitor saw a black suitcase, a black garbage bag filled with trash, two large empty plastic soda bottles and two empty pizza boxes.
To Mr. Hess, it’s almost ironic that critics complain the revitalization would somehow disrespect the plaza’s heritage, because, he said, if anything, the design pays homage to the city’s rich Chumash and Old Spanish roots. Further, he contends it would restore life to the 100-year-old plaza, the city’s first town square.
“This space is historic in use, in its setting, and in its surroundings, but for the past couple/few decades it’s become the back of house for businesses, a parking lane, a place for marches to begin or end, for Fiesta and other events, and a place for the unhoused,” he said. “It has not been used by the locals in the way it was intended.”
To change this, the city embarked on an ambitious project to turn things around, forming an Advisory Committee in 2019 composed of two representatives of the Santa Barbara City Council, Planning Commission, Parking and Recreation Commission, Historic Landmarks Commission and the executive director for the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.
“This city representation was important because it provided perspective from each of the commissions/council members and the Trust,” Mr. Hess said. Information from the well-attended public outreach meeting in March 2019 provided a baseline of information from the community from which the Advisory Committee and design team based the initial designs, he said.
“We also have architectural historians … as consultants to review ideas with and to make sure what is proposed is appropriate,” he said.
Since 2019, the Advisory Committee has met 14 times and held two joint meetings with HLC.
“The design went through many, many iterations because each small change in the design had a ripple effect and while the process was slow, it was very thorough,” Mr. Hess said. “The public was welcomed at each of those meetings, and we heard from many.
“I met with many groups over the years, and I’ve had countless discussions discussing the merits of the design and the thought behind each feature, all the while listening to concerns and ideas. The design is the result of hundreds of hours in discussions, meetings, hearings, arguments and community input.
“So it is with all of that perspective that the goal is to revitalize, not just repair,” he said.
“The Advisory Committee voted unanimously early on that this space should be pedestrian-only, should be activated at its edges with landscaping and seating, should have a building along the edge of the parking lot to enclose the plaza, and that the solid surface material from building to building should be natural, beautiful and should help highlight the historic setting while facilitating activity in the town square again.
“The Advisory Committee felt strongly that this space should be a civic plaza, not a park, and should emulate other historic plazas around the world while tying into, and being sensitive to, the incredible local history that this space represents.”
email: nhartsteinnewspress@gmail.com
