ARCHIVE ITEM: North County Board of Architectural Review Statement
The purpose and intent of the Santa Barbara County Board of Architectural Review (BAR) is to encourage developments which exemplify the best professional design practices so as to enhance the visual quality of the environment, benefit surrounding property values, and prevent poor quality design.
A proposal has been made to create a separate, advisory only, BAR for the north county. A subsequent proposal was made that would create two new BAR’s, one for Gaviota and the Santa Ynez Valley and the other for the balance of the north county.
The Valley Alliance supports an effective, not advisory, countywide Board of Architectural Review (BAR) that protects the quality of life enjoyed by Santa Barbara County residents.
The Alliance does not support the creation of a separate North County BAR because it is not warranted by the number of projects it would review. Secondly, a purely advisory North County BAR is simply a pretense. It would be unable to fulfill its mission due to its advisory nature, and it would be difficult to recruit qualified professionals to serve. Why would a busy professional spend valuable time serving on a board that could be totally ignored? The existing countywide BAR already has difficulty recruiting North County members. At the Santa Ynez Valley Planning Advisory Committee (VPAC) meeting of May 18, 2005 that considered the BAR issue, no member of the public or the committee supported putting the Valley within the purview of a North County BAR.
Finally, the Valley Alliance does not support the creation of a separate BAR for the Santa Ynez Valley and Gaviota simply because they are within Supervisor Firestone's district. The idea that BAR purview should be congruent with Supervisorial Districts is not logical and sets a poor precedent. Supervisorial districts regularly change with population and redistricting, and incorporate different areas with different issues. The process of architectural review should not be reformulated every four years. The creation of three different BAR's is obviously inefficient and costly.
The Valley Alliance does support the creation of specific guidelines for the review of Santa Ynez projects, as proposed by the Draft Community Plan. In addition, a valleywide advisory panel could provide input to the Countywide BAR just as Summerland and Montecito review panels do now. The County looked at the entire BAR process relatively recently (2000) and several measures were adopted to increase its effectiveness. Overhauling County government and regulations for short-term political gain is not good government, it is not in the public interest, nor is it efficient use of tax dollars.
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