In the eyes of some Rancho de Maria residents, a recent ruling that limits road access between the Buellton neighborhood and an upcoming housing development to emergency use or by permit could use less leeway.
Greenlit by city officials in 2018, the Hub project—which will bring new condos to a 17-acre site west of Rancho de Maria—has been addressed at several public hearings over the past six years since its approval. But its developers still have some hoops to jump through before construction can start.
“The final development plan is still in the works. They’re not quite ready to move forward with the construction of that plan,” City Manager Scott Wolfe said at the Buellton City Council’s July 25 meeting.
While introducing a new staff recommendation in regard to the project, Wolfe described the proposal as “a ministerial action, ... typically something we would place on consent calendar.”
“However, in the case of this particular project, we placed it on the business section of the agenda,” Wolfe said of staff’s recommendation for the city to enter into an agreement with the Hub’s developers that would set specific boundaries between the future development and Rancho de Maria.
According to the staff report, the agreement “will ensure that, following construction, access to and from Rancho de Maria neighborhood will be limited to emergency use only.”
However, there will be certain periods of construction where the only usable thoroughfare between the Hub site and Buellton’s main roads will be in Rancho de Maria, Wolfe explained.
During public comment, Nancy Dorwin was one of four Rancho de Maria residents who objected to the proposal.
“This agreement doesn’t do Rancho de Maria any good,” Dorwin said. “We don’t want these big earthmovers and tractors and everything else coming through there. ... We haven’t had our voice heard, and we’re being excluded from this process.”
Other speakers voiced similar complaints, while some raised concerns about increases in traffic congestion. Wolfe later clarified that one of the reasons the item got a public hearing rather than a spot on the consent calendar was for the City Council to hear from the public.
After casting the sole no vote against the proposal, which passed 3-1 (Councilmember Hudson Hornick recused himself due to living within 500 feet of the project site), Mayor Dave King commented on the backlash heard at the meeting.
“To those in the audience here, where were you when I argued until I was blue in the face up here on the dais to not put any residential into this element?” King said. “You people should have been here back when that was going on.”
