Santa Maria planning commission backs former Sears remodel, allows bus-shelter in-lieu option

The Santa Maria Planning Commission voted unanimously April 16 to recommend that City Council approve a downtown permit to remodel the vacant former Sears building at 226 East Main Street into a grocery store with additional ground-floor and two second-floor tenant spaces, and to add an option allowing the developer to either install a transit shelter and concrete pad before opening or pay an in-lieu fee before building permits are issued. The motion carried on a 5-0 roll call.

The 114,000-square-foot, two-story building on a roughly 5.4-acre site has been vacant since 2020 and is located at the southwest corner of Main and Miller streets in the Santa Maria Town Center. Planning staff told the commission the project is in the town center district of the downtown specific plan and, because it exceeds 10,000 square feet, requires a downtown permit reviewed by the commission with a recommendation to City Council. Staff said the project was adequately covered by a previously certified environmental impact report for the downtown specific plan and no further review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is required.

Carol Zuzahini, planning staff, summarized changes made since an April 2 hearing after commissioners had raised concerns about blank second-floor walls on Miller Street, unbalanced second-floor doors and overly tall corner tower elements. Zuzahini said architects lowered the corner elements by about two feet, reduced cornice size, relocated a second-floor door and added large planters, benches and other promenade landscaping to activate…