Title

Downtown Plaza

Body

Located within the area between Micheltorena and Gutierrez (on the north and south) and Anacapa and Chapala (on the east and west) the Plaza includes:

State Street corridor - the cultural heart and soul of Santa Barbara
Public parking lots - safe parking and convenient access to the corridor
Paseo system - a network of connecting pedestrian pass-throughs and retail frontages
00 blocks - proximal access for passenger and commercial loading and short-term parking

The Public Works Downtown Team is responsible for the preservation of central business district infrastructure including public right-of-way maintenance, oversight of The Downtown Organization program, managing Business Improvement District revenues, coordinating a team of Downtown Ambassadors, and the implementation and enforcement of the Economic Recovery Extension and Transition Ordinance.

Sections

Doing Business in the Downtown Plaza

[ expand/close all ]

Plaza History

One of the City’s significant developments was “The Plaza," a six-block section of State Street. Originally constructed in 1969 and designed by architect Robert Ingle Hoyt, the Plaza's sidewalks, paseos and landscaped streetscape define The Downtown's special charm and pedestrian environment.

The Downtown Plaza project in 1969 included the removal of parking lanes on State Street between Victoria and Ortega Streets, which required that parking be provided behind the businesses off of Chapala and Anacapa. The paseos were the result of the need to provide direct pedestrian connections from these new parking facilities to State Street, utilizing existing alleys and in some cases walkways through buildings. This allowed the City to ultimately remove all parking and curb cuts from State Street in the Downtown. The success of the initial paseos, not only as pass-throughs to parking but as retail frontages themselves, led to a network that expanded over time into other alleys and new developments.

Downtown Santa Barbara also provided important leadership for the revitalization of the downtown area, advancing a proposal in the mid-1970s to create a self-assessment on all the businesses to create a stable budget in support of the organization’s work. Santa Barbara’s first Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) was created in 1975, and a second BID was created for the Old Town District in 1976. The Plaza was expanded in the 1990s, with additions of public art, benches, and our favorite, the State Street Flag Program and has been evolving for the last 30 years. Today State Street serves as the cultural heart and soul of Santa Barbara.

Parklets and Temporary Outdoor Business Areas

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council adopted ordinances to allow temporary outdoor business operations. The current ordinance, known as the Economic Recovery Extension and Transition Ordinance (ERETO), temporarily suspends Municipal Code regulations in order to allow outdoor dining and outdoor business uses in the public right of way or on private property.

For information and guidelines for building parklets or temporary outdoor dining:

Outdoor Dining License