1298 Coast Village Road is currently the site of an old Unocal 76 Gas Station, 1 of 2 gas stations on Montecito's Coast Village Road. Price Management owner & operator has proposed a tear down of the stations and a buildout of a beautiful Mixed-Use Spanish Style building to help beautify and improve Coast Village Road.
- The property located at 1298 Coast Village Road is currently a Union 76 service station, on the corner of Olive Mill Road.
- As a lifelong Santa Barbara-area resident, I am trying to do the right thing with this property – something that will serve as a fitting gateway to Coast Village Road.
- The underground tanks need to be replaced at the 76 station, and I have been presented with a decision:
- Either replace the tanks, and recoup the costs by updating the station, running it 24 hours per day, and marketing it so that I can maximize the amount of gas that is sold there
- Or take advantage of this opportunity to do something special with the property.
Instead of replacing the tanks and updating the service station, I want to utilize it to create a gateway to Coast Village Road.
Along with my technical team, I have created a plan to take out the service station and its underground tanks and transform the property into an inviting mixed-use building that offers about 5,000 square feet of distinctive retail space along with 8 small condominiums above.
The plan includes a 3-story building that will offer an underground parking garage – something that is very difficult to create with such a small building.
At 35’ft 6"inches high, this would be the shortest-possible 3-story building.
It’s also about 8 feet taller than the office building next door.
The building is also set up to 32 feet back from the new Coast Village road curb face with a tiered and articulated front design, which helps create 7,389 square feet of common open space that incorporates brick pavers and water wise landscaping, opening the area up and inviting pedestrian use.
By removing the gas station and creating a small-scale mixed-use building, the new use will reduce traffic by 367 traffic trips per day.
It will add 3 parking spaces to coast village road and 8 parking spaces on the back side which will be on grade and not seen from the street with the remaining 28 underground for a total of 36 parking spaces.
Instead of attracting traffic at all times during the day with a 24 hour gas station, the property will be home to residents and small boutique shops that will not attract traffic at the late night hours, fitting in quite well with the rest of Coast Village Road and serving as a gateway to the area.
I don’t just want to replace the underground tanks and continue to use the property as a gas station. This is a special property at a special location – and it deserves to have something special created on it. With this plan, I am confident that’s what we will achieve.
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