Planning commission backs zoning text amendment to regulate battery energy storage systems with expanded notice and other conditions

The Santa Maria Planning Commission voted to recommend that the City Council adopt a zoning text amendment to add battery energy storage systems (BESS) to Title 12 of the Santa Maria Municipal Code, with city-specific standards including an emergency response plan, a minimum separation from sensitive uses, and expanded public notice.

Planning staff, led by Frank (planning staff), presented the proposed amendment as a three-part approach: define BESS in the zoning code; list the M2 (general manufacturing) zone as the appropriate primary location; and add city‑specific standards the commission should require when an application comes forward. Staff said the ordinance is intentionally concise so that technical safety details can continue to be addressed through evolving state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) regulations, building code and fire code updates and through conditions imposed on individual use permits.

Key city-specific elements presented by staff include: - A requirement that any proposed front‑of‑the‑meter BESS application submit a coordinated emergency response and emergency action plan developed in consultation with local emergency responders (fire, police and OES) prior to connection and operation. - A proposed minimum separation of one-quarter mile (1,320 feet) from “sensitive uses” such as residential districts, schools and hospitals, measured to the boundaries of the proposed facility development (not to individual battery units). - Expanded public notice for BESS applications: instead of the standard 300-foot owner notice, staff proposed mailing notices to owners within one-third of a mile (1,760 feet); commissioners considered and later expanded that distance.

Commission discussion focused on public safety, the recent Moss Landing incident in Monterey County and the evolving nature of the technology and state regulation. Commissioners asked whether agricultural land should be treated as a sensitive receptor (Assemblymember Addis had proposed legislation that would classify farmland as sensitive in some contexts) and whether the proposed one-quarter‑mile separation and one-third‑mile notice distance are adequate. Staff explained their reasoning: the one‑quarter‑mile separation aligns with street patterns and allows the commission, during a discretionary conditional use or planned development permit process, to apply site‑specific analysis and up-to-date technical conditions. Staff also noted that AB 205 (the PUC “opt-in” process) allows an applicant proposing 200 megawatts or larger to seek PUC approval and bypass local processes.

The meeting included technical input from Jim Austin, the Santa Maria Fire Marshal. Austin told the commission that plume modeling and evacuation distances are situation‑specific; he said a precise, scientifically supported fixed separation distance is difficult to give without site-specific modeling, and that the county emergency planners were working on related studies. For noticing, Austin said he would be comfortable recommending a one‑mile radius in sparsely populated areas and that larger notice areas could be appropriate.

Public comment included one local industry speaker who said many BESS installations now use modern containerized systems and that older battery configurations like those at Moss Landing are not widely used by current projects. That speaker also noted transmission-substation proximity constraints that often govern siting for front-of-the-meter projects.

After extended deliberation the commission approved a motion recommending City Council adopt Zoning Text Amendment Z2025-2 with several changes the commission added during the hearing: increase notice to owners and occupants within two miles (the motion specified owners and occupants, not just property owners), add agricultural land to the list of sensitive uses, and request that the City Council consider using any submitted BESS application as a trigger to evaluate a possible moratorium if warranted. The motion also included a direction that staff return with a written report to the commission in roughly one year on developments in technology, state regulation and any related local impacts.

The motion passed on a recorded vote with Chair Dickerson, Commissioners Blanco, Mohajer and Seifert voting yes. The commission’s recommendation does not itself change the municipal code; the amendment must be adopted by the City Council. Staff said building code, fire code and PUC regulations will also apply to any future BESS project and that each future proposal will be analyzed on its merits through the conditional use or planned development permit process and CEQA review as required.