Old Town Goleta envisions Disneyland
Old Town Goleta envisions Disneyland
By Barbara Pearson
Staff Writer
Sept. 10, 2007
Goleta Mayor Pro Tem Michael Bennett said at a chamber of commerce planning meeting Aug. 29 that he would like to create a “semblance of Disneyland” in Old Town Goleta.
“You may laugh,” he told to the Goleta Valley Chamber of Chamber’s audience, but defended his intentions to fashion Old Town into a traditional “Main Street” as quaint and charming as the picture-perfect replica of Mayberry-style, America constructed in Disney’s Anaheim utopia.
The purpose, Bennett said, is to generate a destination thoroughfare that will be treasured by future generations as a landmark of their predecessors. Bennett said he intends to gear the revitalized neighborhood towards families, as opposed to tourists and students.
“I think Michael’s vision is to have a friendly place that draws folks who are not just going there to get in and get out,” said chamber Chairman Bill Macfadyen. “I think equating it to Disneyland is because when you visit, there are all kinds of things to draw your attention and get you to stay.”
Bennett listed three clear steps to building a successful old town: “Create something that never was. Create something that is historic for the future. Create something economically viable.”
In recent weeks, the Old Town Revitalization and Economic Development Committee was officially formed by the City of Goleta. Bennett and Councilman Roger Aceves have been appointed to lead the committee and encourage action in an area that has long-been slow going to progress.
“The reason we put it together is because we have an expressed interest from a number of property owners who would like to do something with their properties,” Bennett said. “We felt frustrated, like we weren’t getting focused.”
Bennett is hopeful the committee will help both the city and property owners move forward with their redevelopment ideas. Though he said the new committee will work off of the original old town plan, he has some ideas of his own that he hopes the city council will adopt.
Linda Nahra, president of Community West Bank, which operates a branch in old town Goleta, said the bank recently renovated the site with the hope of setting off a chain reaction.
“We wanted to take a leadership roe in freshening that part of town,” she said. “But I would like to see some consistency with how rules and regulations are applied to that corridor, especially with signage. I’m hoping with the changes in city council and the forward-looking thinking we’re seeing coming out of there, those changes are all positive.”
Although the Goleta Board of Supervisors adopted a revitalization program developed by the Goleta Old Town Advisory Committee, or GOTAC, in 1998 – of which Bennett was a member – he said little has been done to implement those ideas beyond new trash cans and bus stops.
“Something needs to be done. Nothing’s happened for years. They’ve been talking about all kinds of plans but at the end of the day, it’s the same thing it was 15 to 20 years ago,” with the exception of speed bumps for pedestrian crosswalks, said Macfadyen.
More recently, a hotel and condominium development on Old Town’s Hollister Avenue has contributed to a potential rebirth of economic vitality in the area, but Bennett wants to keep the ball rolling.
The Hampton Inn, 5665 Hollister Ave., opened July 30, and Bennett said the hotel was totally booked for the first two weeks of October. Just next door at the new Willow Springs 37-condominium development, the newest owners began moving in Aug. 31. The condos start at $565,000.
Harlan Green, former chair of GOTAC, said the new hotel is “the first project that’s been down in old town after all these years to put the revitalization into effect.”
Green said some of the main elements of the original plan were to make the road more navigable, to add off-street parking, to encourage mixed-use development, to preserve historical elements and to preserve historical integrity in new buildings, to add landscaping and to protect the area from flooding.
Because of its susceptibility to flooding, a priority of the original Old Town plan was to make improvements to the San Jose Creek, a task that has taken years of studies and is expected to begin construction in spring 2008.
