Kristen Sneddon never planned to run for political office.
She was teaching environmental geology at Santa Barbara City College when Donald Trump’s first presidential election brought forward new uncertainty over climate policy. Her students were worried, and she watched as the environmental protections she spent years studying, teaching about and advocating for, came under threat.
At a March for Science organized by students in 2017, Sneddon heard Goleta school board member Susan Epstein encourage people with scientific backgrounds to consider running for local office, where they might be able to make a difference.
Sneddon took her advice.
She contacted Epstein, visited the city’s website and followed the instructions for getting her name on the ballot.
“And then I won, and that’s how it started,” Sneddon recalled.
Almost nine years later, the Santa Barbara native is running for Mayor, stating that the city needs to stop debating its future and start putting years of planning into action.
But her push to move forward comes as several of those efforts face fresh uncertaint—from the cost and complexity of rent stabilization to legal challenges and a referendum effort threatening the delay of the heavily contended State Street Master Plan.
After two terms on the city council, Sneddon says she has accomplished everything she originally set out to do, and more. Now, she wants to ensure that that work doesn’t lose its momentum,
“I really see that Santa Barbara is rounding a corner towards the future,” she said.
Sneddon, who grew up in Santa Barbara and studied geophysics at UCLA, approaches many of the city’s challenges through a long-term lens, pointing to sea-level rise adaptation, clean energy and environmental protection as examples.
She also believes the mayor’s office holds more influence than its formal powers might suggest.
Although Santa Barbara’s mayor holds only one vote on the seven-member council, Sneddon said that she would make greater use of the office’s role in setting agendas, meeting regularly with councilmembers and holding town hall meetings throughout each of the city’s six districts.
She said the proposed meeting would bring the mayor, district representatives, and city staff together to hear directly from residents.
“And in that way, we’re a partnership,” Sneddon said. “We’re a team representing the whole city.”
Housing has been one of Sneddon’s primary focuses during her time on council, from supporting the formation of the Local Housing Trust Fund to advocating for restrictions on short-term vacation rentals and converting underused commercial buildings into housing.
Sneddon has declined to take any individual credit for the affordable housing units produced during her time on the council, and instead emphasizes the collaborative effort behind them.
“I think all the affordable units that have been produced are the direct results of Council’s work,” she said.
Her housing priorities extend beyond funding. Sneddon is also pushing for restrictions on short-term vacation rentals and the conversion of underused commercial buildings into housing.
But she asserted the city must not sacrifice environmental protections or neighborhood safety to meet its housing needs, defending her votes against development in environmentally sensitive and high fire risk areas.
“I just don’t think they need to compromise,” Sneddon said of the city’s housing and environmental priorities.
She pointed to opportunities for workforce housing on public land and said Santa Barbara needs to focus on affordable units, not additional luxury housing.
That balancing act also impacted her support for rent stabilization, one of the council’s most divisive recent decisions.
Sneddon assisted in championing the ordinance adopted this month, which will limit annual rent increases for covered units to 60% of inflation or 3% – whichever is lower.
But Sneddon is not entirely satisfied with the result.
She said she had long supported a flat 3% cap and expects the city to revisit the adopted formula once a study of the program’s costs is received.
Sneddon would also like to simplify the process for landlords seeking rent adjustments and incentivize smaller property owners to keep rents reasonable, listing potential incentives like reduced fees or low-interest loans for repairs.
“That work is not done,” Sneddon acknowledged. “I’ll be the first to say that work is not done and needs to happen.”
This effort has also exposed some tensions over her leadership style.
An earlier rent stabilization proposal brought forward by Sneddon and Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria came with objections from colleagues who felt excluded from its development.
Sneddon said the proposal’s intention was to make up for lost time after an earlier council discussion couldn’t produce the formal direction necessary to begin drafting an ordinance.
She believed referencing an existing framework, developed with assistance from attorneys familiar with rent stabilization, would actually save the city time and money.
But looking back, she said she would have labeled the document more clearly as a sample ordinance, not a finished proposal.
“I wouldn’t change the memo itself,” Sneddon said. “I wouldn’t change the facts of the memo. I wouldn’t change bringing forward rent stabilization.”
She expressed regret that some of her colleagues felt excluded, but also frustration that there was not more active participation in the proposal’s revision.
The dispute reflects a challenge in Sneddon’s approach to governing: when she believes the city has waited long enough, she’s eager to move forward, even without everyone on board.
On State Street, she said that the consequences of waiting are already starting to become visible.
Sneddon supported the city’s estimated $96 million Master Plan, which envisions a redesigned downtown corridor and major improvements to aging infrastructure.
Although the city has not secured funding for the entire undertaking, she argues that developing a detailed plan is a prerequisite for attracting grants and private investment.
Much of the State Street project’s cost, she said, involves utilities, stormwater systems and other improvements needed regardless of the debate over pedestrian access.
“We haven’t had meaningful investment in our downtown in over 30 years,” Sneddon said. “And that’s not the way you take care of a world-class city like ours.”
She defended that, in the larger promenade envisioned in the plan, construction would proceed one block at a time, allowing the city to make improvements gradually.
Sneddon also pushed back on criticism that the city had ignored business owners who expressed opposition to the plan. She said the planning process included extensive public outreach, but acknowledged that some businesses still remained dissatisfied.
Rather than abandoning the plan, she wants the city to work with those businesses on improvements such as more frequent trolley service and programs to draw customers downtown.
Now, however, the Master Plan faces a lawsuit challenging its environmental review and a referendum effort that could delay implementation.
Sneddon views another postponement as a possible threat to downtown’s recovery, expressing that she views uncertainty as discouraging of investment.
She acknowledged that restrictions on short-term vacation rentals took longer than she would have preferred and expressed concern that the stalled De la Guerra Plaza revitalization could fall by the wayside.
Sneddon described collaboration as a central part of her style of leadership, pointing to her work with Councilman Mike Jordan on State Street and other colleagues on neighborhood projects.
As mayor, her aim is to make those conversations a regular practice rather than waiting for disagreements to emerge during public hearings.
“Mostly, I’m pushing things to happen, not slowing them down,” she said.
