City of Santa Barbara - Residents - Community & Neighborhood - Neighborhood Construction Activity

Westside Neighborhood

Select one of the three buttons above and get up-to-date information on development happening in your neighborhood. To view a list of the previous six months of Building Permit Activity click on Recent Building Permits. To view a list of the previous six months of residential Zoning Information Reports click on Recent ZIR Applications. Click on Pending and Approved Projects in order to view a list of the proposed development in the neighborhood.

The following information was derived from the original General Plan for the City of Santa Barbara.

Neighborhood Boundary

Area: approx. 517 acres
North: Highway 101
South: Carrillo Street and the base of the Mesa Hills
East: Highway 101
West: the base of the hills containing Bel Air Knolls

Schools, Parks and Places of Interest

The area contains the Harding Elementary School and the La Cumbre Junior High School and contains Bohnett Park.

Neighborhood Profile

The Westside neighborhood is used primarily for single-family homes. One portion of this area, however, between Highway 101 and San Andreas Street where the General Plan calls for twelve dwelling units to the acre, is zoned R-3 for multiple dwellings. This area has been gradually rebuilding with new apartment houses, and it can be expected that increases in such apartment development will continue within this corridor. In the past, the proximity of the railroad tracks to dwellings has been detrimental and has had the effect of discouraging improvement. As future development takes place in the area, adequate buffering techniques and the orientation of development away from the railroad can alleviate the effect of this detracting element. West of San Andreas, where zoning is R-2, some duplex development has taken place. However, the major portion of the area is still developed with single-family dwellings. Beyond Robbins Street, where the General Plan calls for five dwelling units to the acre, R-1 zoning establishes the remaining portion of the Westside as an area for single-family residential development. Although E-3 zoning would conform to the General Plan density of five dwelling units to the acre, this vicinity of the Westside is designated R-1 because the majority of lots in the area are the minimum size required in an R-1 zone.