A group of Santa Barbara residents are fighting the design approval of a four-unit apartment project that they say is incompatible with the neighborhood and clashes with the bungalow homes in the Upper Eastside area.

A 1,743-square-foot, single-story duplex with a detached two-car garage currently sits at 501 E. Micheltorena St., near a surface parking lot and a two-story medical building.

The new apartment project proposes one three-bedroom unit, one two-bedroom unit, one one-bedroom unit and a studio, ranging in size rom 575 square feet to 1,335 square feet.

Santa Barbara's Architectural Board of Review approved the project on a 3-2 vote in May.

More than 50 members of the Upper Eastside Neighbors group and several community organizations have appealed the project approval, and the matter will be taken up by the Santa Barbara City Council at its Tuesday meeting, likely around 4 p.m.

“We take great issue with the height and architectural style proposed, as the project is, in our opinion, totally incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood,” the appeal letter states. “Well over half the homes within a two-block radius of the project site are bungalow style, with the rest a mix of Victorian and Spanish-style structures.”

The city says that several potentially historic resources are located within a block of the project site, but neither the site or current building is historic.

The project is relatively small at only four units, but it is another flashpoint in the highly charged and controversial debate over the wave of apartment projects that the city has approved in recent years.

The city in 2013 agreed to give developers bonus density — giving them the right to build multiple apartment buildings on small lots — so that the city could create more affordable-by-design apartments.

Although the apartments that are part of the city's Average Unit-sized Density Incentive Program do not have rental rate restrictions, the smaller size of the units is envisioned to attract young professionals.

The high-density apartment projects are the anchor of a new vision ushered in by the city in recent years: young professionals living near or within walking distance to downtown, who ride the bus, bicycle or scooter to work, while enjoying restaurants, nightlife and experiential attractions, such as beer and wine tasting on State Street and in the Funk Zone.

The new philosophy, however, clashes with the city's old-school preservation mentality, which historically has resisted tall buildings and dense apartment projects, in an attempt to keep Santa Barbara different from the developed coastal communities up and down the state.

In addition, affordable-housing and neighborhood activists contend that the dense apartment projects will attract more cars to the already crowded neighborhoods, since developers only have to build one off-street parking space per apartment unit, and it is likely that multiple drivers will live in the apartments.

Since the apartments are not price-restricted, some advocates fear that the cost to rent the units will be too high for the downtown workers making entry-level salaries.

The first AUD project to get built, The Marc on Santa Barbara's Upper State Street, charges as much as $3,500 per month for two-bedroom units.

With the Micheltorena Street project, the residents are trying to preserve the look and style of the neighborhood, which is dotted with dozens of bungalow homes, with their large verandas and patios, built in the early 1900s.

The style of homes, along with massive citrus groves, exemplified Southern California in the early part of the 20th Century.

The new apartments would stand 22 feet high at the street corner, and the project's architect, Ken Vermillion and Mark Kirkhart with DesignARC, already reduced the height of the project by 6 inches.

The Pearl Chase Society, Citzens Planning Association and Bungalow Haven Neighborhood District have written letters in oppostion to the height and neighborhood compatibility of the project.

“Any structure proposed for this elevated site should blend into the hillside and be in a style compatible with the historic neighborhood,” said Steve Dowty, president of the Pearl Chase Society.

Betsy Cramer, president of the Citizens Planning Association, believes the ABR got it wrong when it approved the design.

“We think that the proposed adjacent four-unit building on this important corner neither satisfies the ABR-mandated role of protecting and preserving the natural charm and beauty of Santa Barbara, nor is the architecture at all appropriate for the neighborhood,” Cramer said.

The City Council will hold an appeal hearing at its Tuesday meeting, which starts at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 735 Anacapa St.

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.