Chamber News

The US Chamber of Commerce has shared some important updates, including two sign-on letter requests. The first is a Permitting Reform Coalition Letter, calling on Congress to improve America’s permitting processes to enable infrastructure projects to improve the economy and the lives of Americans. The second is a Sign-On Comment Letter Opposing the Proposed FTC…

The County of Santa Barbara has officially released the Draft 2030 Climate Action Plan (CAP), which includes programs and policies associated with the 6 focus areas of the CAP. The Chamber has reviewed the 71-page document to identify items of interest to the business community.  The top three items of note are as follows:  “Develop…

On March 31, the County of Santa Barbara submitted a revised draft Housing Element to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The County’s initial draft Housing Element was met with some community pushback in the cities of Goleta and Carpinteria, due to the County’s initially proposed rezone sites’ proximity to the two…

The City of Carpinteria received a response from California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) regarding the City’s 2023-31 Housing Element. After revising the draft Housing Element, City staff brought an update to the City of Carpinteria’s Planning Commission on March 20. The revised Housing Element is expected to be brought before the City…

The City of Santa Barbara is continuing the process to revise its 2023-31 Housing Element, following comments in the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s (HCD) November 16, 2022 response letter. The letter provides feedback and various recommendations for the element’s improvement. HCD recommended a full analysis of identified sites, including an assessment of…

The Chamber supported the Heritage Ridge residential apartment project at its final hearing before Goleta City Council on March 7. The Chamber has been in support of this project dating back to the Goleta Chamber – for just over 8 years. The Council approved the project, and Heritage Ridge will soon provide 102 affordable rental…

On March 20, the City of Goleta received a letter from the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), which addresses the City’s most recently adopted revised 2023-31 Housing Element. In this new letter HCD calls for additional revisions necessary to comply with State Housing Element Law. During the Chamber’s review of HCD’s response…

Recently the Chamber held a South Coast Tech Roundtable on Energy Reliability and Resiliency. The Tech Roundtables are a quarterly meeting of South Coast tech and manufacturing representatives meant to provide networking and discuss a specific topic as it relates to the tech and manufacturing industry. The Tech Roundtable on Energy Reliability and Resiliency featured…

On March 8 the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission voted unanimously to support the initiation of the Chamber supported Solomon Hills project. Located just south of Orcutt, the proposed 4,000 residential unit project also includes commercial and open space zoning to meet the daily needs of the community and aims to act as a model…

On March 7 the Chamber was proud to launch the Roadmap to Recovery: The Road Home. This document is phase three of the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber’s Roadmap to Recovery, which began during the pandemic and developed plans and action steps to help get businesses, large and small, reopened safely and focused on long-term…