Sneddon for a Safer and Sustainable Community

As Santa Barbara's mayoral election approaches, Councilmember Kristen Sneddon is drawing support from residents who point to her record on wildfire preparedness and affordable housing — two issues that have defined the city's struggles with safety and affordability in recent years.

A recent endorsement letter published by the Santa Barbara Independent, written by Santa Barbara resident and housing nonprofit board member Lisa Carlos, argues that Sneddon's background as a UCLA-trained geophysicist and her willingness to take politically difficult positions make her the right choice to lead the city.

A Record Rooted in Fire Safety

Carlos's endorsement opens with a stark historical frame: her memory of watching from Stearns Wharf in 1977 as the Sycamore Canyon Fire destroyed roughly 200 homes and half the Riviera. That personal history, she writes, informs her assessment of Sneddon, who was sworn in on the council in January 2018 — the same day debris flows from the Thomas Fire burn scar devastated Montecito, closing Highway 101 in both directions and forcing essential workers and first responders to be ferried in by boat because they could not afford to live in the city.

According to the letter, Sneddon worked closely with a neighborhood association on the city's Community Wildfire Protection Plan, an effort that led to increased funding for vegetation clearance and expanded defensible space around homes. She also used the plan's findings to help craft a local ordinance limiting SB 9 lot splits — the state law allowing property owners to subdivide single-family lots — in high fire-hazard zones. The rationale, as Carlos describes it, is straightforward: adding density in areas where evacuation routes are limited and fire risk is elevated compounds the danger.

Sneddon has also been endorsed by the city's firefighters association, according to the letter — a signal that public safety personnel see her as aligned with their priorities.

The Measure I Housing Funding Fight

The endorsement's sharpest policy argument concerns Measure I, the city sales tax measure that Carlos supported as a board member of two housing nonprofits, with the expectation that affordable housing would be a funding priority.

According to the letter, only 10 percent of Measure I revenues — about $1.5 million — initially went to the Local Housing Trust Fund, which channels money toward affordable housing production. Carlos writes that she applauded Sneddon's leadership in pushing more dollars into the fund, while requiring that city reserves be replenished — an arrangement framed as balancing housing investment against fiscal responsibility.

Carlos contrasts that with the council's 2024 decision, made unanimously, to pledge $227 million in principal and interest over 30 years from general fund revenue — funded through Measure C — for a new police station and Dwight Murphy Field improvements, despite what she describes as an ongoing operating deficit. Her argument: the council has demonstrated it can commit serious money when it chooses to, and Sneddon's push on housing trust funding was about keeping promises made to voters.

Sneddon's housing work also included service on the council's housing crisis committee during the COVID-19 pandemic, when rents in Santa Barbara climbed sharply. The committee, according to the letter, proposed stronger tenant protections and increased funding for affordable housing.

A Warning About Land Use and Wealth Concentration

Beyond the specific policy record, the endorsement letter raises a broader concern about the direction of the city — one that resonates in a community where workforce housing shortages have become a defining civic issue.

"Do we want the interests of big business and real estate to have undue influence over local land use decisions?" Carlos writes, noting that having lived in the Bay Area, she has seen how that dynamic plays out. Her worry is that Santa Barbara is becoming "a playground for the wealthy" where the teachers, firefighters, nurses, and service workers who keep the city functioning are forced to commute long distances because they cannot afford to live locally.

That concern is grounded in lived experience. During the 2018 debris flows, the closure of Highway 101 cut Santa Barbara off from the south, and workers who lived outside the city simply could not get to their jobs — a vulnerability that underscored how the region's housing crisis intersects with its disaster preparedness.

What's at Stake in the Race

The mayoral election comes at what Carlos calls a crossroads for the city. Her closing argument is characterological as much as policy-driven: Santa Barbara needs, in her words, a leader who responds to emergencies — including what she describes as the massive displacement of the local workforce — and who takes stands even when they are not politically safe.

The endorsement adds a grassroots voice to a race in which candidates' records on fire preparedness, housing funding, and development are likely to dominate the conversation through the fall campaign.

For Santa Barbara voters, the practical stakes are concrete: how much of the city's sales tax revenue flows to affordable housing, how strictly the city limits new development in fire-hazard zones, and whether the next mayor prioritizes keeping the workforce that runs the city living within it.

Read the full endorsement letter at the Santa Barbara Independent.