When it comes to activities geared toward families in Buellton, some city officials fear the list rarely lends itself to young children other than those who love feeding ostriches.
While reviewing a conditional use permit request for a proposed youth gymnastics center at the Buellton Planning Commission’s Aug. 15 meeting, two commissioners described the project as long overdue.
“I’ve made my remarks before. We need to become a little bit more kid-friendly,” Commissioner Daniel Contreras said at the meeting. “There really isn’t enough space for our children here in this community, and I think this is going to provide them that.”
Shortly before seconding Contreras’ motion to green-light a new Pacific Flips location in Buellton, Commissioner Shannon Reese said, “We always hear from people [that say] there’s not a lot of things for kids to do.”
Although Planning Commission Chair Art Mercado also expressed support for the gymnastics center, he said the project was bound to raise traffic issues due to its proposed site: a vacant but existing warehouse on Industrial Way.
In December 2023, the Buellton City Council overturned the Planning Commission’s decision to allow In-N-Out to set up shop at another large vacant structure—the shuttered movie theater formerly known as Parks Plaza—after reviewing a Buellton resident’s appeal. The City Council sided with the appellant, who argued that the project would severely worsen traffic congestion in Buellton.
To prevent facing the same fate as the aforementioned company known for burger flipping, Pacific Flips worked with city staff on some preemptive traffic mitigation measures to include as part of the project’s conditions for approval, Buellton’s Assistant Planner Cara Miralles explained at the Aug. 15 meeting.
One of the conditions states that the proposed gymnastics facility—set to offer courses for preschool and school age children—must “require at least 10 minutes in between classes,” to help “mitigate some of the traffic flow concerns and congestion at the driveway, and on Industrial Way,” Miralles said.
Miralles noted that there’s only one driveway for cars to enter and exit onto Industrial Way from the parking lot—which includes a total of 13 spaces—in front of the project site.
“The vast majority of children obviously do not drive and are dropped off,” Miralles said with a laugh.
Pacific Flips owner Kelly Reed, who currently runs a gymnastics facility in Solvang, attended the meeting and outlined some of the company’s procedures to limit traffic coming in and out of the proposed site, including pre-designated time frames for kids’ parents and relatives to watch classes.
Mercado asked his peers on the Planning Commission if they should instate a condition of approval that would require the permit to be re-evaluated each year. Miralles explained that the current conditions allow city staff to intervene and work with Pacific Flips on adjusting protocols if traffic or other issues escalate.
“I don’t see us needing them to come back within a year unless something outrageous happens,” Contreras said shortly before the permit was approved with a 3-0 vote (Commissioner Marcilo Sarquilla was absent).
