The Farm is a proposed residential community on a 27.53-acre site at 5885 and 5669 Carpinteria Avenue — the current location of the Tee Time golf driving range. The project consists of 191 for-sale homes: 97 single-family detached homes and 94 townhomes. 39 of those homes — approximately 20% — will be deed-restricted and sold at prices affordable to low-income households. The project also permanently dedicates 7.6 acres as publicly accessible open space with all-native vegetation, maintained trails, and a connection to the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve. All development is located north of the Union Pacific Railroad, with the southern bluff parcel permanently preserved.
We appreciate the sentiment behind this question — it reflects how much this community values open space, and so do we. But the property is not for sale. We are contractually committed to a builder, and the terms of that agreement are confidential, as is standard in transactions of this type.
Beyond the contractual reality, it's worth being direct about the broader context. This land has been privately owned and zoned for residential development for decades. The community successfully purchased the bluffs parcels to the east, and we fully support that. But this parcel was never part of that campaign and was not acquired with public funds. The private property rights here are the same rights every homeowner and landowner in Carpinteria holds.
We would also ask those raising this question to consider what a realistic acquisition would require. Fair market value for 27 acres of coastal Carpinteria land zoned for residential development with a deemed complete application runs deep into the tens of millions of dollars. There is no funded campaign, no city budget line, and no conservation mechanism that reaches that number. And if the land isn't developed, Carpinteria's obligation to the state — 828 housing units still needed, including hundreds of affordable homes — does not go away. It simply falls on other sites and other communities.
The choice here is not between development and open space. It is between a thoughtfully designed project that permanently protects 7.6 acres of public open space and delivers 39 affordable homes — or a privately held site with no public benefit at all, indefinitely.
Today the 27.53-acre site has no deeded open space, no guaranteed public access, no native habitat, and no affordable housing. The Tee Time driving range and farm provide private commercial use only. Under The Farm proposal:
The project replaces zero public benefit with a meaningful, permanent one.
This is one of the most common points of confusion, so it's worth addressing directly. Today, the site is a flat driving range with no structures — so from certain vantage points, sightlines across the property are unobstructed. But an unobstructed view across private land is not open space. There is no public access, no habitat protection, no deed restriction, and no guarantee it stays that way. The owner could develop the site under its existing PUD zoning at any time.
The Farm replaces that with 7.6 acres of permanently dedicated, publicly accessible open space — more than a quarter of the total site — with native vegetation, maintained trails, and a connection to the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve. That land will be protected by deed in perpetuity. It cannot be built on, sold off, or converted to private use.
Will views change? Yes — as they would with any development on a site zoned for housing. But the tradeoff is real and permanent.
Today there is an unobstructed sightline across private property that could be developed tomorrow with no community input. Under The Farm, the community gains permanently protected land that can never be taken away.
Yes — and it will be improved. The project includes a maintained accessible path of travel to the coast, connecting to the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve trail system. Public coastal access is preserved and enhanced, not eliminated. The entire southern parcel (APN 001-170-010), approximately 4 acres of bluff land south of the railroad, remains completely undeveloped and will be restored with native habitat. The community is also exploring the feasibility of a railroad crossing connection with Union Pacific and relevant agencies.
Builder's Remedy is a provision of California's Housing Accountability Act — not a loophole, but the enforcement mechanism built into the state's housing system. Here is how it works in plain language:
The Farm's preliminary application was filed in December 2024, when Carpinteria had not yet completed its required rezoning. Builder's Remedy doesn't take away the city's role — it retains full authority over design, building standards, environmental review, and conditions of approval. What it prevents is denial or delay based solely on density or zoning that conflicts with the city's own Housing Element commitments. The project still goes through the full entitlement process.
Think of it as a state housing guarantee — a legal protection that ensures California's housing crisis isn't solved on paper while cities quietly block projects on the ground. It exists because of people on waiting lists for affordable housing, not because of developers.
California requires every city to plan for and facilitate a specific number of new homes by 2031, assigned through the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process. Carpinteria's obligation is 901 units across four income categories — very low, low, moderate, and above moderate — representing more than five times the city's previous cycle allocation of 163 units. Three years into the eight-year cycle, the city has permitted just 73 units — 8% of its total obligation. Zero moderate-income units have been permitted in the entire cycle. The city achieved state certification of its Housing Element on January 30, 2025 — but certification documents planning capacity, not production. The production gap is severe and widening.
Effectively, no. Three years into the eight-year cycle, the city has permitted 73 total units — but all but 11 of those are above-moderate income, and those 11 are all small ADUs. Zero moderate-income units have been permitted. The city needs 542 additional units in the very low, low, and moderate income categories before 2031. The Farm's 39 low-income units would be the first meaningful affordable production of the entire 6th cycle — solving 31% of the remaining low-income obligation and 53% of the remaining above-moderate obligation in a single project.
Several community members have suggested other locations. The answer is straightforward: this site is zoned for residential use, already in the city's Housing Element land inventory, and the only site in Carpinteria with a complete application currently under review. 'Somewhere else' does not have a complete application, does not have an identified developer, and does not have a committed affordable housing partner. The state's mandate of 828 remaining units cannot be deferred to an unidentified future site. The Farm is ready now.
The property is privately owned and has been zoned PUD — Planned Unit Development — for residential use for decades. The city cannot compel a private landowner to preserve agricultural land indefinitely, and the state's housing mandate means inaction has real legal consequences for Carpinteria. The fenced farmland on the northern parcel is served only by municipal water with no qualifying agricultural water supply — the very criterion by which Farmland of Statewide Importance classifications are determined. The site was never part of any community land acquisition campaign and was not acquired with public funds.
The 39 deed-restricted low-income units will be priced to be affordable to households earning at or below 80% of the Area Median Income — approximately $90,000 per year for a family of four in Santa Barbara County (2025 figures). Based on standard affordability formulas, that translates to purchase prices in the range of $350,000 to $450,000. In a market where the median Carpinteria home sells for $1.4 million, these are the only for-sale homes that a teacher, firefighter, healthcare worker, or local service employee could realistically purchase. The project is partnering with People's Self-Help Housing to administer the affordable component.
No. The project has been professionally studied for seal impacts by Dudek, an established environmental consulting firm. All development is located north of the Union Pacific Railroad — approximately 600 feet from the bluff and rookery — with a permanent open space buffer in between. No development occurs on the southern parcel adjacent to the rookery. The proposed native vegetation restoration on that parcel will create a habitat screen that reduces visual and noise disturbance to seals. The study identified mitigation measures including coastal sage scrub restoration at a 3:1 ratio and a bluff vegetation screen that reduce construction and long-term impacts to less than significant.
For those genuinely concerned about the rookery: the Chevron facility immediately to the west — with its active industrial operations, truck traffic, dock equipment, and decades of heavy use — has been a far greater source of disturbance to the seals than a residential neighborhood set 600 feet back behind a vegetated buffer ever would be. With Chevron's removal and the site restored to residential grade over the next two years, the overall environment around the rookery will materially improve. The Farm's native habitat restoration adds to that improvement.
At 6.97 units per acre gross, The Farm is lower density than virtually every residential precedent in Carpinteria:
The Farm at 6.97 u/ac gross is one-third the density of what the city mandates for new affordable housing sites. On its 19.8 net developable acres the density is 9.65 u/ac — still less than half the city's RMU minimum.
At 6.97 units per acre gross, The Farm is lower density than virtually every residential precedent in Carpinteria:
The Farm at 6.97 u/ac gross is one-third the density of what the city mandates for new affordable housing sites. On its 19.8 net developable acres the density is 9.65 u/ac — still less than half the city's RMU minimum.
Two product types. Single-family detached homes range from 3,146 to 3,504 square feet with five bedrooms across three floor plans. Townhomes range from 1,747 to 1,822 square feet with three bedrooms. All units are two stories. Each home includes a two-car garage. Architect: Bassenian Lagoni.
Single-family detached lots are 45 feet by 90 feet — approximately 4,050 square feet. Townhomes are alley-loaded with a zero-lot-line configuration. For context, lots in the Arbol Verde / Concha Loma neighborhood average approximately 6,534 square feet. The Farm's SFD lots are smaller, but the project's gross density (6.97 u/ac) still aligns with what the 6-R-1 zone produces at build-out because of the 7.6-acre open space dedication.
The project-wide gross building coverage is 27.4% — well under the 30% code maximum. At the individual lot level, the 97 single-family homes sit on 4,050 square foot lots. With a two-story home of roughly 3,300 square feet, the first-floor footprint is approximately 1,650 square feet plus a 420 square foot garage — a total building footprint of about 2,070 square feet, or approximately 51% per SFD lot. One community comment suggested homes take up 85% of each lot — that figure is not accurate. It appears to confuse total home square footage with lot area; the second floor does not occupy ground. The actual footprint is approximately 51%.
The number sounds large but breaks down simply. 382 spaces are in private garages — two per home. 194 are in private driveways. That accounts for 576 spaces used exclusively by residents and never available to others. The remaining 107 spaces — 36 uncovered, 62 parallel street spaces, and 9 ADA — are guest and visitor parking shared across the community. The project exceeds city requirements (2.0 per unit required, 3.58 provided), which means less overflow onto neighborhood streets, not more.
5885 Carpinteria Avenue is identified in the city's own Housing Element land inventory as a candidate site suitable for residential development. Infrastructure capacity — including traffic — was assessed as part of that analysis. A Transportation Impact Analysis has been prepared as part of the project application and submitted to city Public Works for review. Construction traffic will be managed through a dedicated traffic management plan with designated haul routes and restricted hours.
Construction timeline will be confirmed following project approval. Typical for a development of this scale in coastal California, construction would be phased over approximately two to three years following entitlement. Details on phasing, construction hours, and neighborhood traffic management will be established as conditions of approval with community input during the public hearing process.
The project application was deemed complete in late December 2025. On April 13, 2026, the Carpinteria City Council is scheduled to approve the contract for an environmental consultant to prepare the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Once that contract is approved, the EIR process will move forward under the city's oversight as lead agency.
Following completion of the EIR, the project will proceed through public hearings before the Architectural Review Board, Planning Commission, and City Council. The California Coastal Commission will also have jurisdiction given the coastal location. Community members will have formal opportunities to comment at each stage — during the EIR public comment period and at each public hearing. The full entitlement process is expected to take 12 to 24 months from application completeness.