Update September 2008
How blessed our family was when Jeff became a member of the Hillside House family in the late 1940’s. Jeff started when Hillside was on Ontare road. Our mother, Allaseba Gorham, served on the board when “Pop” Cooprider was developing Hillside House on Veronica Springs Road in the 1950’s. It is so exciting to see the future plans for Hillside House to become a more integrated community. Jeff still loves Hillside House—his home for over 60 years!
David W. Gorham (Jeff’s Brother)
Oklahoma City, OK.
Download our latest flyer about the Community Plan.
VIEW THE LATEST LANDSCAPE RENDERING OF the Plan.
Steps along the way: The runoff of rainwater is a big issue in Santa Barbara, particularly when your property borders a creek (Arroyo Burro), as ours does. Here are a couple 4ft-deep holes created to test our soil composition so that accurate calculations can be made about how runoff will be handled.
Purpose of the Community Plan
Hillside House has provided a home for people with developmental disabilities since 1939. Our residents have lived in the same institution since 1955 and it has served them well all these years. Within the last several years Hillside House has been faced with critical issues—a facility that has begun to show signs of age and a funding short-fall. After much consideration, the Hillside House Board of Directors determined that the creation of a Community Plan for the property was the best solution to these issues.
Update Facilities
 The current Hillside House facility is woefully outdated. In 2007, all of the major systems in the building including heating, air conditioning, water, electricity, security and communications-failed, some more than once, costing Hillside House nearly $100,000 in unplanned expenses. The current building would need substantial repairs and upgrades to meet codes. Additionally, our residents live in an institutional setting, separated in some ways from the community. New State mandates are requiring organizations like Hillside House to completely revise their housing models. The new laws seek to house people with disabilities in homes that are integrated into neighborhoods. State funding depends on this shift in living accommodations. People with disabilities sense of well-being and overall health have been shown to improve when living in an integrated community.
The Community Plan will create contemporary common facilities for residents and housing in a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood, which will bring the developmentally disabled together with others from the Santa Barbara community, thereby replicating the true diversity of Santa Barbara. And it will protect the land surrounding Hillside House, making the beauty of this land available to the broader neighborhood.
Long Term Funding Source
Beginning in 2002, Hillside House began to experience severe budget shortfalls. Public funding has been falling further behind the cost of care each year. And, this funding only provides for the fundamental needs of our residents. In order to continue to provide persons with disabilities the excellent care and quality of life for which we are known. Hillside House has to raise at least 15% of additional income each year. Finding a means of securing this income has become a major priority if Hillside House is to continue to provide a home to the 59 residents who depend on it.
The Community Plan will ensure that Hillside House can continue to serve the needs of the developmentally disabled in perpetuity by creating both an endowment fund through the sale of the market rate homes on our land and a reliable income stream through rental units.
Community Planning
Re-design
 As a longtime resident in the Las Positas Valley, we share the concerns of our neighbors about how this area develops. We’ve worked diligently to design a project that both achieves our goals and is appropriate for the site and neighborhood. We remain committed to working with the community and neighborhood as we go through the planning process.
We’ve heard from neighbors, state and county organizations, relatives of our residents, and others in the community, and we listened. We have addressed concerns and come up with a revised plan designed to be a real asset to the neighborhood and a benefit to everyone. Since our last public outreach effort in fall of 2004 much has happened with the Hillside House Community Plan. As you might remember, the project team had a series of meetings with the Planning Commission and neighborhood to review project concepts. The original project included 178 units spread across the site. Based on comments received during this initial outreach effort, the project was revised by:
- Reducing the total units to 121
- Further clustering the units to protect views
- Eliminating the third story elements on most structures
- Reducing the overall size of the structures
- Increasing the creek setback and open space
- Eliminating any commercial uses
Sensitive Site Planning
We studied the site very carefully as we conceptualized the community plan. We wanted to make sure that the plan was sensitive to the neighborhood and the on-site resources. A comparison of the development potential (under City zoning) and the proposal for the 23-acre site reflects, we think, that sensitivity.
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| Community Planning |
Development Potential |
| 121 units in 32 buildings |
130 units (pre-zoning density bonus) |
| 4.6 units/acre |
5 units/acre |
| 2 & 3 story buildings |
3 story buildings |
| Covered parking |
Enclosed parking |
| Non-profit & residential uses |
Residential use |
| Public Trails |
Private Trails |
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Community Benefits
 It is important to us at Hillside House that the plan not only meets our objectives, but also includes features that benefit the neighborhood and broader Santa Barbara community. These include the following:
- 17.74 acres in a conservation easement
- Restoration of Arroyo Burro creek
- Preservation of 77% of the site in open space or landscaping
- Dedicated public walking trails along the creek
- Emergency access through the site to allow improved neighborhood fire protection
- No change in existing road pattern
- Rental and homeownership opportunities affordable to local workers, including Hillside House employees (40% of units)
- Local preference for all on-site housing
Planning Concerns and Next Steps…
As the process has unfolded there have been three main concerns expressed: open space preservation and environmental protection; preservation of public views; and traffic and circulation. An update on these issues and a process timeline are provided below.
Open Space Preservation & Environmental Protection
As noted previously, the community plan calls for the preservation of 77% of the site in open space. In order to ensure these areas remain undeveloped into the future, we have offered to put them into a permanent conservation easement.
In addition, the project team has been working to identify ways in which we can not only preserve, but enhance the on-site natural habitat. Our most recent effort was to engage the services of Swanson Hydrology to prepare a restoration plan for Arroyo Burro creek. The plan is intended to improve the biological function of the creek and reduce the sedimentation entering the creek. The plan involves removal of non-native plants, the benching of vertical barks, and the planting of native vegetation to better secure the creek banks and provide shade for creek habitat.
Public Views
Our site plan has also been designed to respect the public views in the neighborhoods. The majority of the proposed development will be tucked into the level areas at the center of the site and at the base of the existing hillside that abuts the Veronica Springs neighborhood. We are also constructing mostly two story buildings to ensure the size of the structures is consistent with existing development patterns. The site will be planted with abundant landscaping that will preserve the natural feeling of the area. Very little of the development will be visible from the road.
 Traffic and Circulation
Any new building project brings with it some increase in traffic. However, the proposed residents of this project will generate considerably less traffic than a standard 121 unit project. The 59 Hillside House residents do not drive, and some of the Hillside House employees will have an opportunity to live and work on-site which would eliminate peak hour trips. In addition, Las Positas serves as a primary Metropolitan Transit District service line making alternative transportation a feasible option for the remaining residents. The Community Plan will result in some increase in traffic along Las Positas, but this is not anticipated to create any significant circulation problems in the neighborhood.
Furthermore, the State of California recently announced that it is relinquishing State Route 225/Las Positas Road to the City of Santa Barbara. The transition to the City will be completed in 2009. Once the city has full jurisdiction, circulation improvements needed to mitigate potential project impacts along the Las Positas Corridor will be easier to accomplish. It should also be noted that the City will begin studying improvements to the Las Positas/U.S. 101 interchange. They are also analyzing interim improvements to intersections with the poorest level of service.
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