Montecito, California

Montecito (archaic use of Spanish for woodland or countryside) is an unincorporated town in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast of California, Montecito sits between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Montecito is best known as a celebrity enclave, owing to its concentration of prominent residents. An affluent town, the median home price was $7.5 million in 2024. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Montecito as a census-designated place (CDP). The population as of 2022 is approximately 8,638 residents.

The site of present-day Montecito, along with the entire south coast of Santa Barbara County, was inhabited for over 10,000 years by the Chumash Indians. The Spanish arrived in the 18th century but left the region largely unsettled while they built the Presidio and Mission Santa Barbara farther west.

In the middle of the 19th century, the area was known as a haven for bandits and highway robbers, who hid in the oak groves and canyons, preying on traffic on the coastal route between the towns that developed around the missions. By the end of the 1860s, the bandit gangs were gone, and Italian settlers arrived. Finding an area reminiscent of Italy, they built farms and gardens similar to those they had left behind.^{[citation needed]}

Around the end of the 19th century, wealthy tourists from the eastern and midwestern United States began to buy land in the area. It was near enough to Santa Barbara for essential services while still being secluded. Desirable weather and several nearby hot springs offered the promise of comfortable, healthy living, in addition to the availability of affordable land.

The Montecito Hot Springs Hotel was built near the largest of the springs, in a canyon north of the town center and directly south of Montecito Peak, in Hot Springs Canyon. The hotel burned down in 1920; it was replaced a few years later by the smaller Hot Springs Club.

The architect George Washington Smith is noted particularly for his residences around Montecito, and for popularizing the Spanish Colonial Revival style in early 20th century America, as is Lutah Maria Riggs, who started as a draftsman in Smith's firm, rose to partner, and later started her own firm.

Montecito was evacuated five times in four months between December 2017 and March 2018 because of weather-related events, which included the Thomas Fire, the 2018 Southern California mudflows, and flooding related to the Pineapple Express. The mudflows resulted in 20 reported deaths; 28 others were injured, and at least four people were reported missing. FEMA gave the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District $13.5 million in 2020. The funds will be used to buy land in Montecito to construct an $18 million project that will help control debris flows from San Ysidro Creek with a larger debris basin.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP (census-designated place) has a land area of 9.2 square miles (24 km²).