1 MEMORANDUM TO FILE
DATE: January 10, 2024
FROM: Winnie Cai, Assistant City Attorney
SUBJECT: Threat of Litigation for Shelby Site (SB 330 Preliminary Application)
On March 15, 2023, the developer s of the r esidential development p roject located at 7400 Cathedral Oaks (APN 077 -530-019) (“Shelby site”) submitted a SB 330 Preliminary Application (“March 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application”) to amend the existing vested application for the residential project at the Shelby site for 56 single family residences on 60 proposed lots (“Shelby Residential Project’). The existing application for the Shelby Residential Project was deemed complete on March 11, 2011 and had vested into the ordinances, policies, and standards in effect at the time. The developer chose not to process the Shelby Residential Project to approval due to the water moratorium imposed by the Goleta Water District in 2014. In response to the March 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application, amongst other things, the City notified the developer’s representative (i.e., Beth Collins of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, the developer’s attorney) that there could only be one application for the Shelby site at a time (i.e., either the March 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application or the vested application for the Shelby Residential Project) and that if the developers of the Shelby site chose to proceed with the March 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application, the City would close the existing application for the Shelby Residential Project. The matter was submitted to HCD, and HCD opined that a particular site can have only one application for development at a time. Subsequently, the developers of the Shelby site withdrew their March 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application.
Thereafter, on November 29, 2023 , the developers of Shelby filed a new SB 330 Preliminary Application (the “November 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application”), which was nearly identical to its March 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application. As soon as possible thereafter, the City returned the November 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application to the developer’s representative in accordance with the City’s prior explanation that an SB 330 preliminary application could not be used to amend an existing prior vested application nor could it be pending at the same time as the existing vested application, as also previously confirmed by HCD. On December 21, 2023, at Ms. Collins’ request, City staff met with Ms. Collins and other representatives of Shelby whereby Ms. Collins threatened litigation against the City over the City’s return of the November 2023 SB 330 Preliminary Application and proposed settlement of the matter in order to potentially avoid litigation.
The City Council will meet in closed session at their regular meeting on January 16, 2024, to discuss this settlement offer and threat of litigation.