Planning Commission forwards Santa Maria 2045 General Plan to City Council after addressing parks, complete-streets and habitat wording

The City of Santa Maria Planning Commission recommended that the City Council certify the final environmental impact report and adopt the Santa Maria 2045 General Plan, and also moved to forward a zoning map amendment to align the city's official zoning map with the plan.

Planning staff walked commissioners through the final draft and a staff report responding to public comments, describing changes to the land use, conservation, circulation and safety elements. "If this move[s] forward tonight, the city council hearing will be on April 7," Dana Eady, a planning staffer, told the commission.

During the presentation staff said the land use element would add references to the C2 zone, remove the County of Santa Barbara from certain application processes so the City of Santa Maria is the lead agency, and revise policy LU 5.3 to avoid siting housing directly adjacent to high-intensity commercial, agricultural or industrial uses. Staff suggested striking the phrase "single family" from LU 5.3 so the policy would refer more broadly to "housing." Shannon, another planning staff member, confirmed the edit could be made prior to forwarding the item.

Public comment was limited to a single speaker, Laurie Tamura of Urban Planning Concepts. Tamura urged the commission to include a map showing Las Flores Ranch (which she described as 1,700 acres in county jurisdiction), questioned the practical effect of the plan's parks standard, asked that references to "private roads" be removed from complete-streets policies, and warned that language such as "no net loss" for biological resources has been used in litigation. "Five acres per thousand is aspirational. In reality, the city has done 2.5 acres per thousand," Tamura said, pressing staff to clarify how the standard relates to developer fees.

Commissioners debated whether an aspirational parks standard should automatically trigger higher developer fees. Planning and Public Works staff emphasized the two processes are separate: the general plan sets goals while the impact-fee update and a forthcoming parks master plan will determine fee nexus and implementation. "If we continue to not charge people, we'll continue to not meet it," Shannon said, arguing that a funding mechanism is needed to reach the 5/1,000 target.

The commission also discussed complete-streets language and private subdivisions. Commissioners expressed concern that overly prescriptive graphics or a one-size-fits-all standard could be costly or inappropriate for small projects such as senior-housing developments. Staff said the intent is flexibility and context-sensitive designs consistent with Office of Planning and Research guidance and offered to provide clarifying verbiage or examples rather than a mandatory graphic.

On habitat and conservation issues staff recommended retaining an action that aims for "no net loss" in identified sensitive habitat areas, saying the policy would apply only where a biological survey establishes the sensitivity and that projects would remain subject to EIR mitigation or project-level CEQA. Staff also recommended deleting pesticide-management language that the county, not the city, regulates.

After discussion, Commissioner Dickerson moved and the commission approved three separate resolutions by roll call: to certify the final EIR for the Santa Maria 2045 General Plan; to recommend that City Council adopt the new general plan (including the LU 5.3 text change to remove the words "single family"); and to recommend that the City Council adopt an ordinance repealing and reenacting the official zoning map (Z2026-0001) to match the updated land-use map. The motions carried with the commissioners voting "aye." The items are scheduled for City Council consideration on April 7.

The commission concluded by thanking staff for a multi-year process of outreach and review and directed staff to prepare the recommended changes and supporting materials for the council hearing.