On a weekday just after 5 p.m., Goodland BBQ in Goleta had only a handful of customers, while traffic was backed up on Hollister Avenue right outside.

It’s a familiar sight for many business owners in Old Town, who say their revenue has dropped since the interim repaving project on Hollister Avenue.

Now business owners are coming together to try to fix the problem.

Earlier this summer, the City of Goleta changed the markings on Hollister Avenue, reducing the two lanes on each side to one, prohibiting left turns from Tecolote Avenue onto Orange Avenue, and adding bike lanes.

Parking along Hollister Avenue was also changed from parallel to angled parking with reverse entry. The city’s goal was to slow traffic and create parking while it focused on Project Connect, which will build roundabouts on Hollister Avenue near Highway 217 and replace the existing bridge over San Jose Creek.

City Councilman James Kyriaco said the re-marking would need to take six months to properly evaluate data on accidents, sales tax revenue and contributions from the public.

“I think you have to give things a little bit of time so you can actually measure what’s happening,” Kyriaco told Noozhawk. “I realize there are a lot of different things happening in Old Town and I know there are challenges, but I think it’s also important to recognize that we want to make an informed decision based on publicly available data.”

Some business owners say they don’t have that much time.

Monica Scafidi’s parents own Domingo’s Cafe at 5782 Hollister Avenue and said they have seen a drop in sales since the re-striking. She said many of her elderly customers don’t like reverse parking and are frustrated with traffic.

Scafidi also believes that the re-marking has only made the situation more dangerous.

“People aren’t backing up, people are still riding their bikes on the sidewalk, people aren’t giving other people the space they need,” Scafidi said. “I don’t think it’s a great design thing. It’s unsafe, even though they’ve tried to make it safer. I just don’t think it’s safe.”

Scafidi said she and many other business owners felt they weren’t being heard by the City Council, so they turned to the Greater Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for help.

Jacqui Inda, policy chair for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, told Noozhawk they were approached by Old Town business owners last month and began meeting regularly to explore solutions.

Inda said they meet to help business owners come to an agreement on the problems and desired solutions. She said 86% of businesses in the Old Town are involved in such efforts.

In addition, business owners are considering the creation of a Business Improvement District, in which businesses in a specific area would pay a fee to fund projects and have a say in any projects proposed by the city in that area.

Phebe Mansur, owner of CopyRight Printing at 5708 Hollister Ave., said the goal is to bring companies together to prevent this from happening in the future.

“We want to come together and create an organization that can represent the interests of the businesses, preferably before it gets to the point where we now have this project and the businesses say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, this is hurting my business.’ The city would work with the organization from the beginning and get feedback at the beginning, not at the end,” Mansur said.

She hopes the city will respond with more than just telling companies to give the project time.

“If there are companies that are already not making enough money to pay their rent, how many months can they wait until they themselves go bankrupt?” asked Mansur.

Kyriaco said he supports a business improvement district in Old Town and that this has been one of the city’s goals for a decade.

“We want to stand side by side with our local businesses, listen to their opinions, consider their suggestions whenever possible and do everything we can to make Old Town a more livable place for more people, not just our local businesses but also the nearly 5,000 people who live in this neighborhood,” Kyriaco said.

He said he has met with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and business owners and the city wants to support the businesses during the construction project.

Some companies have been able to maintain their capacity and have even gained new customers since the re-marking.

Pete Jimenez, owner of Goleta Barbers at 5870 Hollister Avenue, said he has seen many customers come in since the re-marking.

“New customers came by because they are now driving at normal speeds,” Jimenez said.

He believes that the negative reactions to the project are the reason why people are moving away from the old town.

“Maybe the reason they’re suffering is because all the people out there are saying negative things like, ‘Stop supporting Goleta,’ when they should be trying to support us while we’re doing all the construction,” he said.

Jimenez has lived in Old Town for more than 20 years and has seen the safety issues caused by vehicles speeding through the area. He encourages customers to take the time to familiarize themselves with the new parking conditions and continue to support local businesses.

“I think if they took five more minutes to figure out how parking works and set it up so they can still come back and use the business, that would be better than just complaining to everyone else. That just spreads negativity,” Jimenez said.