Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Planning Airport topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council asks staff to seek written corrections from SBCAG on airport land‑use plan
Summary
After a lengthy discussion, the council directed staff to document factual disagreements with the adopted Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan and to pursue written engagement with SBCAG to request amendments or a redo, citing concerns the plan's flight‑count assumptions and noise/safety contours impose undue land‑use limits locally.
Council members at the November Lompoc meeting expressed broad skepticism about data in the adopted Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (ALUCP) and directed staff to document the city's factual disagreements and begin written engagement with the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG).
Staff presented three response options: approve amendments to align local plans with the ALUCP; initiate a formal disagreement process with SBCAG; or first provide a written, itemized list of disagreements and ask SBCAG to amend or redo the plan. The council coalesced around the third path as an initial step and asked the city attorney and planning staff to prepare a documented submission to SBCAG.
Members repeatedly questioned specific assumptions underlying the plan. "I don't think anybody in town who knows our airport thinks that number is ... it's more like 3,000," one councilmember said, challenging the ALUCP's projection of 30,000 annual operations rising to 60,000. Members warned the resulting noise and safety contours could restrict recreation fields, industrial areas and permitted development, citing potential impacts to existing users and projects such as Pale Blue Dot.
Staff and the city attorney outlined the procedures if SBCAG does not agree: the city can make formal findings and, with a two‑thirds council vote, adopt a local position that disputes the ALUCP and preserve local land‑use authority, subject to potential legal challenge. Councilmembers emphasized that any outreach to SBCAG should be in writing and well documented.
Council directed staff to assemble the city's technical concerns in writing and to return with recommended next steps after SBCAG's response. The action is a directive to staff rather than final local adoption or overruling of the ALUCP.
