Santa Barbara moves closer to building new police station on East Cota Street
Santa Barbara residents packed the city council meeting on Tuesday as the city discussed the proposed relocation of the police station.
The council voted 4 to 2 in favor of designating the Cota Street Commuter Parking Lot as the preferred site alternative for the new Santa Barbara Police Station. The recommendation now goes to the city's environmental review board.
"I recommend the police department be built at the Cota Lot. Given what I've heard today, it seems like the best solution," Police Activities League member John Van Donge said. "We'll have to find a new location for the farmers market and that will upset me too because I enjoy going there every week, but I think given the timeframe I understand today that we've got two years to figure that out."
Farmers and their supporters have made it clear they do not want to move from their Saturday morning site on Cota Street.
"People who shop at the farmers market, they love the farmers market," Farmers' Market Board President Noey Turk said. "It is a part of their lives. It is what they do on Saturday, it is generations of people."
Farmers market staff and volunteers have gathered thousands of signatures in support of keeping the farmers market at its current location.
