Santa Barbara County

[davidhogan 1]

Link

 

Residents are flocking to the farm jobs that are growing as this picturesque stretch along US-101 approaches a population of 10,000.  The CoastRunner train service parallels US-101 along the coast, south of the hills.

 

This region will follow the example of San Diego County, but will probably not see as much medium/high density growth, will feature rail travel, and has no freeway plan other than US-101, which is already laid as an avenue.

 

This will not duplicate Santa Barbara in probably any way, other than it will be a low density region based on the Central California Coast, the real terrain of Santa Barbara, and a few real freeway names.  Maybe.

 

Dave

[dev 47]

Wow Dave, that looks nice! I am happy to see another CJ from you, keep updates coming!

-dev

[brett_131 0]

Sooooo empty right now, but im expecting a nice big city to develop.  I like the look of suburban large cities, where it is all sprawled out,etc.

 

Look forward to it

[abcd 5]

Looks good! Can't wait for more updates!

[bobinator 0]

Yay! another city journal by davidhogan! Looks great so far!

Also, I was wondering how you took the pic of the whole region. I can't figure out how to do it. I can only get screen shots as big as my screen.

[rob_2616 13]

Awesome terrain. It's not flat enough for me, but it looks good.

[texanpride786 2]

Looks great, look forward.

[texanpride786 2]

Looks great, look forward.

[davidhogan 1]

Early Growth of Carpenteria

 

Carpenteria Blvd & US-101 is basically the center of the universe to residents of Santa Barbara County.  There is already talk of upgrading this section of US-101 to freeway, since it's the main east-west corridor.  With under 10,000 residents the state and federal governments have been slow to care about funding upgrades.

Farms and poor people dot the countryside around here.  Educational facilities are being built, but these things take time & money.  Most of the farmers are just happy to have city-supplied power and sanitation services at this point.

Farther east there's some houses with great views, and a small church that was recently constructed.  As this neighborhood has grown, more and more middle-class residents have moved in.

Central Carpenteria is quite proud of it's ultra-modern hospital.  The proposed Business 101 has a small sign near it, but because of local opposition it may never happen.

Finally here we have Carpenteria Point.  They were quite jealous of Central Carpenteria's hospital, so they built an exact duplicate on the new extension of Carpenteria Blvd.

The region shot was taken with a program called Region Census - I'm really not sure where I got it but I know it had it's own thread on ST before discussing it.

I'm not sure how big of a city this will become, it's definitely going to grow out more realistically than my SD region did (I hope.)

For freeway and mass transit: yep.  There'll be at least one or two more train lines added, most likely just small commuter loops.  The freeways will eventually be US-101, as it needs it, and probably a few state routes will show up, of coursee including PCH.

Dave

[K_m_H 0]

Looks like a great start to me.. the map looks interesting

[Christo26 5]

I love it! I live in the area and wish I could get my hands on that region!
Christian

[Fairlane500 8]

Awesome start. Sure looks to be a promising city to develop. can't wait to see what's next.

[oroen 0]

I very much enjoyed San Diego and look forward to this as well. Nice start!

[Cjah 15]

This is going to be so cool.

I already like what I see.This may be better then S.D.

Great C.J.!

[davidhogan 1]

Thank you all for the comments, they've motivated a little before and after of some work I just completed a little while ago.

 

 

US-101 through the main area of West Carpenteria was starting to see over 1,000 cars/day even with the region's population still only about 17,500.  Adding to this the traffic passing from Los Angeles up to San Francisco, the road was starting to have rather long waits at the lights.  How could we solve this?

 

 

We started construction of the Freeway 101 covering about a 1/4 mile segment, with three constructed on/off ramps.  Because of the freeway construction frontage roads were built, which quickly were seen as desireable by commercial businesses.  Carpenteria Blvd was also re-aligned to its original path, now with an avenue overpass instead of the lower capacity road overpass constructed before.

 

Dave

[fivedayrental 0]

wow, i love all the cars /traffic going next to the farms.

[ChicAgo333 2]

very nice journal, ill have to be following this...seems very realistic

 

do you use a traffic mod or something? cause that sure seems like a lot of traffic and i like traffic

[davidhogan 1]

 

A close-up regional shot of the so-far developed areas.  BR-101 can be spotted even from here, since it's where the population runs south of the freeway segment along Carpenteria Point.  This shot is cut just west of Summerland, a small town of about 1,000.

 

 

The West Summerland train station, and the surrounding development.  There's not much to say, it's a small town.

 

 

Here is the East Summerland train station, and the main part of town.  Summerland is not a good place to find a job, but being right along US-101 it's not too much of a problem for the residents.

 

Dave

[davidhogan 1]

101 Freeway Construction Progresses

 

As shown, the 101 Freeway has been expanded over old US-101 to both the east and the west.  Current plans call for bringing 101 East up to freeway standards once Summerland doubles in size to about 3000 residents.  Farmers seem to be eyeing the land to the west, while many are selling off more and more of their fields in Carpenteria to housing developers.

 

Dave

[davidhogan 1]

Pacific Blvd Upgrades Completed

 

At the end of Stage 1 of upgrading Pacific Rd to Pacific Blvd there was still limited development allowed in this area.  Traffic was moving slow enough already that additional growth was feared to possibly cripple the local economy.

 

After Stage 2 Pacific Beach had finished it's end of the work, and was merely waiting for West Hills to finish the new alignment of Pacific Blvd around the west side of town.  Residents were also confused by the road changing names to West Hills Rd, but that seems to be settled.

 

The final alignment was just completed this Sunday, and local residents couldn't be happier.  The final routing allows for quick passage directly up to US-101 West without driving through the village of West Hills.

 

Dave

[ginchael 1]

Cool! Glad I caught this before it got too far along...now I can watch it grow!

[Mexicanboy13r 12]

wow another GREAT City Journal by Dave! Looks great so far!

[rob_2616 13]

I can't believe how congested some of your steets are - its exactly how I remember California.

[Cjah 15]

I love the new Pacific BLVD!
It really looks great.

The growth of your cities is also excellent!

Keep up the great show that is S.B.!

[bobinator 0]

I like how this is growing out! Looks really good so far!

[davidhogan 1]

The three main cities of Santa Barbara County are shown here.  Each has sub-areas, and there are other areas either not labelled or not shown with residents, but those are the important three to remember.

If you look carefully on the east side, you can see the brand new Santa Barbara Bypass segment of US-101, replacing the original avenue routing to the north.  There will be closeups later.

Dave

[davidhogan 1]

The City of Santa Barbara

 

Here's the city of Santa Barbara.  The current end of Freeway 101 has become quite a popular commercial and industrial center, and with city-provided water flowing to the whole city over 7000 residents have moved in already.  Once the city grows to the east Freeway 101 will be continued to the east, and the region's current plans indicate the connector road/Santa Barbara Blvd will continue north as a freeway with an interchange at US-101.

 

 

There's still plenty of open land, the city is only about 10 years old at this point.  There's even 2 medium density rowhouses in town!  (They're just out of the picture, but they're historical so they'll be around a while.)

 

 

The south end of Santa Barbara Blvd, take it north and you can get straight on to Freeway 101 South.  The region's current master plan calls for Santa Barbara Blvd to become a freeway at some point, but it's unlikely to happen due to local opposition at this point.

 

In East Santa Barbara the all new James Brown High School has opened to it's first students.  Local parents are estatic, as is the farm owner who made about a 4000% profit on his land in 14 years.  As some high-tech companies and small offices have grown up in Santa Barbara more and more rich residents are moving in.

Dave

[bobinator 0]

Wow! I really like your piece of elevted highway! I looks really neat! I can't wait for another update!

[Cjah 15]

That high shcool....How come you have it looking normal?I mean I think my textures are weird.Um did that high school have dependencies?

Enough of my problems..On to your C.J.

I love the new avenue extention.I also love how the areas develop.Whats next to come???

I can't wait!

[dominohobbes 27]

Looks really good Dave, I've been to Santa Barbara and I like it, I'll be sure to follow your cj.

 

Keep it up man