Santa Barbara Council Upholds Plans for Second-Largest Hotel in City

In a 5-2 vote, Santa Barbara City Council chose to deny three separate appeals of the much-contested 250-room Garden Street hotel, upholding the planning commission’s approval of what will become the second-largest hotel in the city.

The decision came after intense debate over environmental concerns, impacts on the Funk Zone neighborhood, and whether the city needed another hotel in the midst of a housing crisis.

The hotel, part of a 40-year plan by original owner Bill Wright to redevelop six parcels along Garden and Yanonali streets about a block from the beach, was met with resistance almost every step of the way since Wright’s family hired Newport Beach–based Dauntless Development to guide the project through city…