Dates

• Existence: 1925 - 2017

In Memoriam By Paul Bradford Thu Oct 12, 2017

Jeanne Graffy worked diligently for the community over the decades, fortified by her legendary sense of humor.

Jeanne Graffy served as a selfless, quietly effective community leader — from chair of the city’s Planning Commission to three terms on the Santa Barbara City Council, and later as chair of the County Board of Supervisors.

For decades, Jeanne fought to protect neighborhoods in our community. Her deep appreciation for the beauty and unique character that make this area precious earned her the support of so many people from all walks of life. In her capacity as the founder of Looking Good Santa Barbara, she raised awareness of the vital role our physical environment has on our neighborhoods, communities, and personal well-being.

On a macro level, Jeanne Graffy spearheaded the 1970s initiative to shape city planning efforts based on a population limit of 85,000, a size that would ensure quality of life and delivery of public services, and that specifically designed a community size based on air, water, and traffic quality and accessibility.

Jeanne focused on the number of developments throughout the South Coast, believing that many of them were misplaced or did not fit the existing character of the neighborhoods. During her tenure on the Santa Barbara City Council and County Board of Supervisors, Jeanne worked with applicants to redesign projects to be in keeping with the look and feel of surrounding neighborhoods. For example, she was able to reduce the density of the Oak View project by more than 50 percent (24 fewer units), which avoided shoehorning a high-density project into an infill location.

Working to provide more resources for parks and open spaces, Jeanne also voted to increase developer park fees by 1,200 percent.

When a proposal for a drive-through fast-food restaurant was proposed near a busy intersection in Goleta, neighbors were up in arms and county planners were between a rock and a hard place. Because the parcel’s zoning allowed such a restaurant, a denial of the project by the county would have led to an immediate lawsuit by the restaurant owners. Not only would this have resulted in financial damages to the county, but approval and construction of the restaurant would have been likely. Jeanne’s instincts as a former planning commissioner kicked into high gear. Her creative solution to deny two elements of the proposed restaurant — the drive-through bay and the 24-hour components — made the project financially unviable, which killed the project, avoided a costly lawsuit, and saved taxpayer dollars.

Jeanne’s pragmatic and inventive approaches to planning matters came from her rooted appreciation for the beauty of our physical environment. She valued earth, sky, and ocean, and her body of legislative and community work gives testimony to this.

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