Movers serving all of Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County runs from the Rincon, on the Ventura County line, to the Santa Maria River, with the Santa Ynez Mountains between the South Coast and everything north of them. Highway 101 covers about 90 miles of it. The county has eight cities, and places such as Montecito, Hope Ranch, Summerland, Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, Orcutt and Isla Vista are unincorporated, so the county sets the rules there. Elite Moving & Storage plans each move around which of those applies, how far the truck has to go and what the property’s drive will take.
Planning starts with a private walkthrough of both homes, in person or on video, and of the route between them, with a note of every piece that should travel crated. Every item goes on an inventory, the price goes in a written estimate, and that plan carries the white glove move through to delivery and placement.
Goleta movers: homes, business parks and tech offices
Goleta, just west of Santa Barbara, became a city in 2002. Its incorporation left out Isla Vista and the neighborhoods of the Eastern Goleta Valley, which stay unincorporated, so a Goleta mailing address does not always mean City of Goleta rules. We confirm the jurisdiction at both ends before the truck is booked.
The city’s business parks along Hollister Avenue house technology, aerospace and defense firms, and Santa Barbara Airport and UC Santa Barbara sit right beside the city. An office move there follows the building: loading and elevator times set by property management, a certificate of insurance filed ahead, and every desk tagged to the new floor plan, with the aim of having the team working the next business day. See office and commercial moving, and for employees and executives relocating to the area, corporate relocation.
Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito and Hope Ranch
Carpinteria, the first city past the Ventura County line, became a city in 1965 and keeps a small-town scale around Linden Avenue. West of town, beachfront homes line Padaro Lane on long, narrow lots between the 101 and the sand, outside the city in the county’s Toro Canyon plan area. Summerland, between Carpinteria and Montecito, is a small unincorporated town of about 1,200 residents centered on Lillie Avenue, where the county sets the rules too. The 101 carpool-lane project runs from Carpinteria into Santa Barbara, with all new lanes due in December 2028, so ramp closures are checked the week of the move.
Montecito and Hope Ranch, the county’s best-known estate communities, have their own sections on our page for movers in Santa Barbara, Montecito and Hope Ranch. Both are unincorporated. Montecito’s narrow, hedged lanes and long drives often call for a shuttle truck, and most of Hope Ranch’s roads are private, maintained by its homes association. Large households there are planned as an estate move.
The Santa Ynez Valley: Solvang, Santa Ynez, Los Olivos and Buellton
Over the mountains from Santa Barbara, the Santa Ynez Valley is wine and horse country. Solvang, the Danish-style town, became a city in 1985, and Buellton, where Highway 246 meets the 101, in 1992. Santa Ynez, Los Olivos and Ballard are unincorporated. The valley was named the Santa Ynez Valley American Viticultural Area in 1983, and vineyards, horse ranches and country estates spread across it.
Ranch and vineyard moves are planned around the land. Drives can run long, sometimes on gravel and through ranch gates, and a property may include a guest house, barns, tack rooms and a wine cellar as well as the main house. We cover every building at the walkthrough and send a smaller truck up the drive where a full-size one cannot reach. Cellars are packed case by case in wine shippers, and if a collection has to wait between homes, see wine storage. From Santa Barbara, the truck takes either Highway 154 over San Marcos Pass or the longer 101 through Gaviota Pass, chosen for the truck and the load.
Lompoc, Santa Maria and Orcutt in the north county
Lompoc, west of Buellton on Highway 246, sits beside Vandenberg Space Force Base, one of the city’s largest employers, and at the edge of the Sta. Rita Hills wine country. Relocations for people taking jobs at or around the base are planned like any corporate relocation, with dates set by the start date and the housing.
Santa Maria, 60 to 70 miles northwest of Santa Barbara depending on the route, is the county’s largest city, with about 110,000 residents at the 2020 census, and the Santa Maria Valley was the county’s first wine appellation, in 1981. Orcutt, just south of Santa Maria, is unincorporated, with about 32,000 residents and its own Old Town. North county homes range from city neighborhoods to ranch and vineyard properties in the valley, and the drive from the South Coast is long enough that the crew’s day is planned around it.
Moving to Santa Barbara County from Los Angeles
Plenty of county moves begin in Los Angeles. Santa Barbara is about 95 miles up the 101, the Santa Ynez Valley lies over the mountains beyond it, and Santa Maria is 60 to 70 miles farther north. Distance changes the plan. A move to the South Coast can sometimes be loaded and delivered in one day. A move to the valley or the north county, or any large home, often runs over two days: the first for packing and loading, the second for delivery, with the overnight stop for the loaded truck agreed in writing beforehand.
Where a closing date or a renovation leaves a gap, the household can go into storage between homes and be delivered from the same inventory once the house is ready. For the detail of a move into Santa Barbara, Montecito or Hope Ranch, including the city’s oversized truck rule, see movers in Santa Barbara. Leaving the state altogether? Our long distance moving page sets out how an out-of-state move is planned.
