Walk lower State Street this week and you'll see restaurant dining parklets along both curbs and bike lanes running down the middle, the arrangement Noozhawk described in its October coverage. The layout began as a temporary pandemic measure in 2020. The City's adopted master plan treats it as the starting point for a permanent redesign.
The adopted plan and the petition to repeal it share more hardware than the referendum debate lets on. Both put retractable bollards at the intersections. Both let delivery trucks onto the street. Both close it for events. Where they split is how cars fit into the street's everyday schedule, and how soon anything changes.
What the adopted plan actually builds
In September 2026, the City Council voted 6-1 to adopt Ordinance No. 2026-6235, which amends Municipal Code Title 31 and puts the State Street Master Plan into effect. Mayor Randy Rowse cast the only no vote. The final plan document, dated September 1, 2026, covers the 400 through 1300 blocks between Gutierrez and Sola Streets, along with the paseos, plazas, parking facilities and cross streets that connect to them.
The plan divides the 80-foot right-of-way like this:
- Two 30-foot sidewalks, each with a frontage zone where outdoor dining can run up to 12 feet, a clear walking zone at least eight feet wide, and a furnishings zone for trees, lighting, seating and bike parking
- A roughly 20-foot center corridor made of two 10-foot lanes for cyclists, transit and emergency vehicles, plus service, delivery and private vehicles during set hours
- Retractable bollards at nine intersections, about eight retractable and 16 to 24 fixed posts at each, with a retraction time of 3 to 8 seconds for emergency response
Underfoot, the plan calls for permeable pavers and trench drains to handle stormwater, protection for the mature specimen trees already on the corridor, new large shade trees, and paving that carries the same design language from De La Guerra Plaza onto Anapamu Street.
Two bollard positions, and the clock nobody has set
The plan runs the street on a time-based schedule. With the bollards raised, the street is pedestrian and cyclist priority, and transit vehicles and small shuttles carry technology that retracts the bollards automatically as they approach. Emergency access is kept at all times. With the bollards lowered, the plan reads:
"Vehicles allowed for deliveries, refuse collection, maintenance, and private access. A City appointment system will accommodate special construction and delivery needs outside normal windows."
So the adopted plan does allow private cars on State Street during some hours. What it leaves open is which hours. The plan says the timing for raising and lowering the bollards will be set by the City Council "once construction is complete." As The Channels summarized it, the ordinance closes State Street to motor vehicles except for scheduled delivery windows, emergency service and shuttles. The plan's own wording gives the future Council room to open more hours than that.
What the petitioners propose with the same hardware
The referendum comes from the Committee to Reopen State Street. According to Noozhawk, its main backer is Jim Knell, president of the private real estate firm SIMA. The committee's press release calls for a "shared-use State Street" with "low-speed" vehicles, parking and deliveries, wide sidewalks and outdoor dining. It supports retractable bollards too, but wants them used to close the street for events and emergencies rather than to admit cars only at certain hours.
Laid out next to each other, the two positions share most of their parts:
| Adopted Master Plan | Committee to Reopen State Street | |
|---|---|---|
| Retractable bollards | Yes, at nine intersections | Yes |
| Everyday setting | Time-based schedule set by Council after construction; raised bollards mean pedestrian and cyclist priority | Open to low-speed vehicles |
| Private vehicles | During hours Council sets after construction | Yes, with parking |
| Deliveries | During set windows, plus an appointment system | Yes |
| Event closures | Block by block, including at peak nighttime hours in the Entertainment District | Bollards used for events and emergencies |
| Wide sidewalks and outdoor dining | 30-foot sidewalks, dining up to 12 feet | Supported |
| Timing | Phased over about six years | Wants vehicle access sooner |
Each side also has a case about downtown's health. Noozhawk reported that opponents of the closure say banning vehicles has hurt downtown businesses and let risky e-bike riding spread. Supporters say the promenade builds community and makes the corridor safer for people on foot. The storefront numbers in that same article give a baseline. Quarterly Radius reports counted about 25 to 30 vacant storefronts on downtown State Street in the years before the pandemic and 33 to 40 in the years after the 2020 closure. In the first quarter of 2026, the count was 30 spaces for lease between Sola and Gutierrez, back to pre-pandemic levels.
How the plan treats your end of the street
The plan doesn't apply one rule to every block. It splits the corridor into three districts, and two of them keep two-way traffic on their outer block:
- Entertainment District, 400 to 600 blocks. The existing tree canopy stays. Bollards allow block-by-block closures during peak nighttime activity, and the 400 block keeps two-way vehicle access as the main emergency route through the Highway 101 underpass. The 500 and 600 blocks, which include Paseo Nuevo, get full streetscape reconstruction, and the 400 block gets a gateway.
- Civic and Commercial District, 700 to 900 blocks, Ortega to Carrillo. The plan calls this stretch "the priority for intervention," with flexible plaza space for year-round markets, festivals and civic events. At the corner of State and Canon Perdido, Music Academy of the West broke ground on October 15 at 901 State Street for The Muse, a music education center with a 200-seat flexible hall, scheduled to open in 2028.
- Arts District, 1000 to 1300 blocks. State Street paving extends onto Anapamu to tie the cultural campus together, and the 1300 block keeps two-way vehicle access to protect the Arlington Street connections. A 1200-block gateway is planned as well.
Six years, about $96 million, and funding still to find
The plan lays out three overlapping phases. Phase 1 covers years one through three, Phase 2 years two through four, and Phase 3 years four through six. Phase 1 is the light work, covering extended sidewalk pilots, paseo lighting and wayfinding. Phase 2 carries most of the weight, including reconstruction of the 700 to 900 and 400 to 600 blocks, the 400-block gateway, the stormwater system and the bollard infrastructure. The Arts District comes last.
Most of the bollards come in Phase 2, and the Council sets their hours only after construction ends. Under the adopted plan, then, the schedule for when cars can use State Street is a decision that waits until the construction phases, spread over about six years, are finished.
The 2026 cost estimate breaks down as $17.508 million for pre-construction, $10.241 million for construction engineering, and $68.271 million for construction items and contingencies. That adds up to roughly $96 million, or about $9 million per block. The plan's funding section is a list of options, not money in hand: $8 million to $10 million in City capital funds, $60 million to $70 million in lease-revenue debt or a voter-approved general obligation bond, and possible state and federal grants, tax-increment financing, assessment districts, hotel-tax reinvestment, stormwater fees and private investment. Noozhawk reported that as of October, the City was pursuing grants but had not developed a funding plan. The petitioners point to that gap when they argue the plan lacks guaranteed funding.
Where the petition stands as of late October
The campaign turned in its petition on Wednesday, October 14, according to the Santa Barbara Independent, which reported that organizers announced 6,000 signatures. City spokesperson Sarah Gorman gave Noozhawk a higher count, 8,700 signatures submitted, against the 5,483 needed. The published reports don't explain the difference between the two figures.
From here, the process runs in this order:
- County verification. The City Clerk's office sent the petition sections to the County Elections Office for verification. When that's done, City staff bring the petition to the Council. Noozhawk's October 16 report and The Channels' October 19 report both described verification as still pending.
- Suspension. The Channels reported that if enough signatures are verified, the ordinance is suspended, which pauses a planning process that has run five years.
- Council decision. The Council then has to repeal the ordinance or send it to voters, by mid-December according to The Channels.
- Election timing. Gorman told Noozhawk the Council could call a special election or put the question on the November 2028 ballot. Knell said in a press release that he's "confident" the petition will qualify for that 2028 ballot.
On the City's side, Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez told The Channels that the plan pulls together years of public input. "We've done a lot of outreach to the community and try to get their input on what they want to see out of downtown and city staff was able to compile all of that into that master plan," he said. Knell's position, in his release to Noozhawk, is that "Santa Barbara voters are tired of the mess on State Street."
The City's State Street project page carries the full plan for anyone who wants to check their own block.
Downtown is where many of our guests spend their evenings, and it's where plenty of our owners and neighbors run their errands, so how State Street works matters to us every day. If you own or manage property near the corridor and want to talk through what the plan's phases and the referendum timeline could mean for you, Samantha Ireland is glad to walk the blocks with you. Let's Connect.