A long-awaited housing development for families to be built on the same property as a Google billionaire’s Santa Barbara grocery store was given the green light last week. 

In April 2025, Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy stepped in to save Tri-County Produce, a beloved mom-and-pop grocery store and seller of local produce, from closing for good. 

Along with its outsize reputation in Santa Barbara for being the go-to purveyor of the area’s best fruits and vegetables, the store’s location is highly sought-after, less than a block away from the ocean and next to the famed Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront resort.

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FILE: Eric Schmidt speaks onstage during the Time100 Summit on April 24, 2024, in New York City. 

Now, plans are taking shape to expand Tri County Produce and build much-needed housing on the 2-acre property the market currently occupies. 

Last week, the expansion of the business and the housing component took a big step forward when Santa Barbara’s Architectural Board of Review unanimously approved the design for the development. 

Santa Barbara faces a housing........

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