A remnant of Goleta’s history still lives near Old Town.
Thousands of lemon and avocado trees line more than 60 acres of land along Hollister Avenue on the east side of Highway 217, about a half-mile west of Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.
The site, now, is proposed for housing.
The Giorgi family wants to build 1,771 new housing units on their property, with 444 of those designated for below market-rate housing.
As it is proposed, “The Orchard” project would include single-family homes, apartments, studios and live-work units.
In addition to the housing, the developers are proposing a child care center, a neighborhood market and several public parks and trails.
“We are real locals who have done real good things in eastern Goleta and want to have a project that we are proud of, that is the next great place to live,” Jeff Nelson, an owner of The Oak Creek Co., told Noozhawk.
The property is one of 20 that is under consideration for a rezoning to build housing within the Santa Barbara County jurisdiction.
The property, however, was recommended for removal from rezoning consideration by the county Planning Commission earlier this month.
The Oak Creek Co. development team — Nelson and his son, Jason — hope the Board of Supervisors will reconsider when it meets April 30 to review the array of housing projects up for rezoning.
If the county decides not to rezone, the developers can still move forward with a project under state Senate Bill 330, which allows them to bypass local zoning ordinances if the municipality is not in compliance with California’s housing development goals.
Known as “builder’s remedy,” the proviso requires that the new development include at least 20% low-income housing or 100% middle-income housing.
The Nelsons say they would prefer to be rezoned because working with the county would provide more affordable housing, and more certainty in the form of a development agreement.
If the site isn’t rezoned, they say the project would lose the public park component, and about 180 units of affordable housing.
The Nelsons said they are working with the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce to ensure that some of the housing is designated for local workers.
“The roadblocks have not been navigated before,” Jeff Nelson said. “In many respects, SB 330 is supposed to have a very clean and straightforward path.
“But in most jurisdictions, the jurisdiction and the builder’s remedy project have been worked out through a development agreement. Really, there’s uncertainty on both sides.”
Jason Nelson said getting rezoned and working with the county is the best path because “our intent is to not do a project that is in conflict with what locals and the decision-makers want.”
“We really want to be wrapped into the county process,” he added.
The Nelsons also worked with the Cavaletto family to develop Tree Farm, also in the eastern Goleta Valley, off North Patterson Avenue a few blocks south of Cathedral Oaks Road.
The Orchard project includes 1,771 new housing units, consisting of 264 low-income units, 120 moderate-income units, 60 workforce units for local employees, and an unknown additional number for local workers through a Chamber of Commerce program.
The remaining housing would be for-sale or market-rate units.
The project is in Supervisor Laura Capps’ Second District. She told Noozhawk that “we are at the finish line of a process that began years before my term.”
“My No. 1 goal from Day One has been more affordable housing,” Capps said. “We simply don’t need to rezone any market-rate housing.”
The state has mandated that the county find land to build 5,664 new units of housing between now and 2031. Of that5,664 figure, 4,142 units must be on the South Coast with the remaining 1,522 in the North County.
The county Planning & Development Department has faced considerable public backlash for, among other things, proposing wholesale rezoning of agricultural lands surrounding the City of Goleta.
County planning staff and the Board of Supervisors historically had approved housing in the North County instead of on the South Coast.
The county’s required Housing Element Update process has had major impacts.
In the past couple of years, several key planning staff members left, including the deputy director and two project managers. About 30% of the department’s staff departed in 2023 alone.
The Housing Element update comes on the heels of a grueling and controversial cannabis ordinance that resulted in heavy criticism from the public and a civil grand jury.
Capps said she wants more affordable housing units and has pushed the county itself to build housing on its parking lots and other land rather than rezone agriculture and open space.
“They all have a long way to go on affordability for me to be excited to support any of them,” Capps said of the proposed projects. “We have an affordability crisis that negatively impacts every aspect of our community.”
She said she is hopeful that land owners and developersrealize the pivotal role they can play.
“This isn’t just about how much money they can make,” she said.“This is about the current livability and the future of the area we all love.”
The City of Goleta has also raised concerns about the project and the overall rezones.
At a Board of Supervisors workshop last month, The Orchard representatives pointed to nearby transportation improvements in progress, such as roundabouts on Hollister Avenue at the east end of Old Town, as proof of mitigation from increased traffic.
This drew a rebuke from Goleta Councilman James Kyriaco, who represents the surrounding neighborhood. He noted that the property owners had requested to be paid for the use of part of their land for a roundabout.
The city needed a right of way concession required by Caltrans to complete the roundabout design, and eventually paid the Giorgi family more than $160,000 to secure their agreement.
Kyriaco said the county Planning Commission recently recommended a significant number of new housing units along Goleta’s eastern border near Old Town.
“Placing an additional 1,200 units of mostly market-rate housing in the same area, at the cost of significant prime agricultural land, seems shortsighted,” he said.
“It would heavily strain city services as well as our new infrastructure improvements.”
Kyriaco also worries that the proposed retail offerings in The Orchard project are out of character and could lead to Old Town gentrification.
The Nelsons, however, believe their project is the most logical rezone of any of the proposals under consideration.
They also say the county already committed itself to the rezone because the site was included in the Housing Element update submitted to the state — before the rezone process was completed.
“We are objectively better by planning principles than others that are more remote from Hollister,” Jeff Nelson said.
Jason Nelson said the county will need to rezone all of the land that it told Sacramento it would to meet California’s affordability requirements.
“The county is going to be short on the number of affordable units that the state is requiring,” he said.
“So in order to get those numbers, we think this project and basically all 18 sites need to be included for a rezone.”
