Santa Barbara's new high-tech destiny is running head-on into its geographic limitations.
Take away the beach and the mountains, and Santa Barbara County is effectively no more than three miles wide in most spots. Add in land controlled by the California Coastal Commission and Environmental Protection Agency, and the county has very little room left for expansion.
Now throw in red tape from local agencies with a say in development, says Sallie Olmstead, vice president of corporate communications at MetaCreations, Inc.
"The Coastal Commission is insane, they regulate everything," says Ron Guilbault, sales and marketing manager for network service provider PowerCom, Inc. "The city government has always been antibusiness and they're trying to shake that reputation."
After a 1925 earthquake, local officials limited buildings to three stories - a restriction that remains in place despite advances in building technology that permit highrises in equally shaky ground such as downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Following the quake, the county created an Architecture Review Board (ARB) to oversee all development.
"It was rebuilt as a theme park with the Mediterranean style," says Steve Cushman, executive director of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce.
The ARB had total control over what buildings were constructed, to the point that they offered free pre-drawn designs to people to make sure the buildings looked the same, he says.
The result: Companies limit the size of their Santa Barbara operations or they learn how to play the local land game.
For companies like MetaCreations, which moved from Santa Monica after an earthquake destroyed its building, expanding its waterside campus in Carpinteria has meant learning the local building lingo. MetaCreations has had to learn what agencies need what information in order to approve building plans. In the end, accounting for minute details of the project has allowed the company to proceed, Olmstead said.
QAD, Inc. wasn't so lucky.
The homegrown company, with more than 400 employees, expects to to grow rapidly and wanted to build a new campus in Santa Barbara, says Gary Kravetz, a job placement specialist in Santa Barbara.
QAD bought a large piece of agricultural land that the city council said it would help convert to commercial land to allow for development. But then nearby residents complained about having such a large commercial development near their homes, and the company's rezoning was defeated.
But Cushman says QAD just went about it all wrong. Because there are no local property taxes, local governments don't have much to offer in the way of tax breaks, he says. But they can help speed up the tedious process of getting construction approvals.
Cushman points to Software.com, Inc., started by Santa Barbara native John McFarlane, as a success story. Software.com wanted to expand its headquarters, and knowing that land was not available, the company instead moved into vacant buildings downtown. Because it cooperated with the limitations, building permits were delivered quickly.
"Santa Barbara has bent over backwards for us," McFarlane says. "The lack of land just means that we have had to plan ahead. We just have to be more flexible."
That means waiting for vacancies, such as the one created when Cisco Systems, Inc. bought StrataCom and moved most of the company's Santa Barbara-based operations north.
"The county now gives (growth priority) to knowledge-based businesses," Cushman says. If that's your thing, "we'll fast-track you on buildings and you won't have to wait." Otherwise, it could take as long as three years for a project from start to finish, he says.
"(The government) should stop being so controlling," Guilbault says. He points to the strict regulations as a reason why companies could never grow large in Santa Barbara. "You just can't do the campus environment here. There will never be a Microsoft here."
Kravetz agreed that companies with less than 20 employees will be the most successful in Santa Barbara.
