There has been considerable attention in the media about Culdesac Tempe, a car-free community in Arizona. When fully built out, it will have 1,000 residents living in 700 units. It promotes a lifestyle fostering human interaction rather than parking spaces. Residents have easy access to free e-bikes, public transit passes, and many nearby amenities — shops, local dining, and delightful places to “hang out.”
Could the principles of this Arizona walkable community be adopted for Santa Barbara’s downtown or even its La Cumbre hub? The planning concepts that make such a community successful are:
- Greater density (both of which are coming to Santa Barbara)
- Mix of land uses: residential, commercial, schools, entertainment, and recreation
- Decentralization with easy access for meeting daily needs
- Focus on building a sense of community, which promotes social interaction, street life, and public spaces.
- Layout that optimizes pedestrian life through attractive sidewalks, paseos, and narrow pathways weaving between clusters of buildings, creating shaded spaces and encouraging breezes
Downtown Santa Barbara already enjoys many of these features, the La Cumbre hub less so. With the addition of more housing, these elements can be enhanced but only if the focus is to improve walkability, biking, and transit-oriented travel, while de-emphasizing private car use. Such an approach encourages safety, comfort, accessibility, efficiency, and attractiveness. Placement of new buildings and tree canopies can limit sun exposure and cool outdoor spaces. Adding awnings over sun-facing windows can similarly improve cooling indoors. Many European cities are moving in this direction — Amsterdam, Paris, Oslo, Copenhagen. Why not a smaller city like Santa Barbara?
By reducing infrastructure for cars and increasing density, costs for housing would decline. Mixed-use development would bring some people to live closer to their work. Similarly, the city’s costs for building/maintaining roads and parking would decline, allowing the savings to shift to meeting more social needs. Furthermore, reducing the amount of asphalt reduces the urban heat island effect. As air quality improves, health care costs can decline. More separated bike lanes would encourage more people and especially children to bike freely without the dangers of vehicular traffic. Convenient neighborhood car rental service and ride share programs could offset private car ownership.
Living in a place where people spend less time in cars means the pace of living is slower with more opportunities for social connection. Research shows overwhelmingly that increased connectivity brings increased happiness. With a growing appetite in the U.S. for walkable, community-oriented living, the challenge is to have the courage to tackle the car-centric mindset. This means relaxing zoning laws to allow for denser housing, reduced parking requirements, and more investment in public transit.
