Poised to neighbor the Santa Maria Airport, a proposed child care center recently managed to stick the landing with city officials.
During the Santa Maria Planning Commission’s Sept. 18 meeting, city staff vouched for the upcoming Wings Infant Center, described in the staff report as a development to help tackle Santa Barbara County’s child care shortage.
“For every 10 infants born in our county, we only have one licensed space for them,” Jacquilyn Banta, chief operating officer of Children’s Resource and Referral of Santa Barbara County, said at the meeting. “Wings Infant Center will help address that deficit.”
The project site is an existing two-story building, which Children’s Resource and Referral of Santa Barbara County currently uses as its Santa Maria office space. The nonprofit recently applied for a conditional use permit to transform the office’s first floor into a new child care center, designed to accommodate a maximum of 20 infants and toddlers, between the ages of 0 and 2.
Proposed improvements at the site will include a new outdoor playground with fencing, a new bifold panel glass door, and additional modifications.
While commenting on day care projects’ below par track record in the area, Planning Commissioner Esau Blanco described the Wings proposal as serving “a critical, vital need for our community,” and a way to entice new parents from out of town to consider raising their kids in Santa Maria.
“We’re trying to attract more young professional families to the community, and this is one important service that they’ll need. … I fully support it,” Blanco said. “We’ve had some projects in the past come forward, and get approved, and then don’t happen. … Hopefully this does move forward.”
Planning Commissioner Robert Dickerson needed clarity on one potential issue before endorsing the proposal.
“Have any noise studies been done?” Dickerson asked staff, while referring to the building’s close proximity to the Santa Maria Airport.
“The younger the child, the more susceptible they are to things as they are growing up that affect them later on in life,” Dickerson said. “I was just curious whether or not having an airport or airstrip right next door or relatively so is an issue at all. … As far as decibel levels and whatnot, … are they relatively low within our norms?”
City staff confirmed that the project site sits outside any thresholds where noise contour restrictions would apply, based on the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments’ Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan.
Dickerson’s only other issue was that he wished the project had more square footage to raise its maximum capacity.
“Twenty children. It’s going to be [fully booked] before it’s even built,” Dickerson said. “I look forward to seeing it. … It’s a tremendous need.”
With a 4-0 vote, the Planning Commission approved the permit. Planning Commissioner Yasameen Mohajer recused herself from voting due to a potential conflict of interest.
