| Downtown Isla Vista Redevelopment Feasibility Study |
| County of Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency |
| Isla Vista, California | March 2002 | to | February 2001 |
| Isla Vista is an unincorporated urban area in Santa Barbara County immediately adjacent to UC Santa Barbara. |
| Downtown Isla Vista is characterized by older one- and two-story commercial buildings with surface parking and |
| marginal storefront businesses. In order to revitalize the commercial district and encourage in-fill housing and |
| mixed-use redevelopment, the County has developed a draft Master Plan for the Downtown, including new zoning |
| and land use designations. To ensure that the proposed development regulations will promote the redevelopment |
| of the downtown area, Strategic Economics performed a financial feasibility analysis of development scenarios for |
| selected downtown parcels under the proposed regulations. |
| |
| Based on the financial analysis and other assessment of the market viability of the Master Plan, Strategic |
| Economics made several recommendations for critical changes to the development regulations, which are |
| currently being incorporated into the Plan. These changes include increasing the allowed housing density to |
| create incentive for tuck-under or structured parking, restricting the requirement for ground-floor retail uses to two |
| main commercial streets, adjusting the development fee schedule for the downtown to allow smaller housing units |
| (such as studios) to pay fees in accordance with their size and likely number of occupants, and exempting |
| mixed-use, multifamily development from the county-wide 25 percent inclusionary affordable housing requirement. |
| Without these changes, it is unlikely that redevelopment of the downtown area would have moved ahead for a |
| considerable length of time. |