Plans for the Santa Maria Airport Business Park cleared one hurdle this week with the approval of Santa Maria Planning Commission, but officials are gearing up for the project's bigger test before the City Council.

The Planning Commission narrowly sent the project ahead Wednesday with a recommendation of approval. After nearly two hours of discussion before a packed crowd, the commission voted 3-2 on a pair of resolutions dealing with the business park Specific Plan and land-use changes. Commissioners Adrian Andrade and Tom Lopez dissented.

A third commission decision examining the environmental documents associated with the project was recommended for approval by the commission on a 4-1 vote, with Andrade voting no.

The question of what will happen to the residents of the Airport Mobile Home Park again dominated discussion at the meeting and it is expected to be on the minds of the council members when the project is reviewed next month. A hearing is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 18.

A roughly 90-unit mobile home park sits on part of the proposed project site and will have to be moved before the business park and golf course is complete. With that knowledge, park tenants have been asking the airport board for some kind of predictability in their situation, since the time line for closure has become fluid over the course of project planning.

Public testimony before the Planning Commission questioned why the park wasn't closed and the tenants relocated before the Specific Plan process. People asked the commission to hold off on the project until after the park was dealt with.

“We never opposed this project. We want good jobs in the Santa Maria Valley for our kids,” Elias Barriga, president of the park tenants association, told the commission. “We want to know where are we going to be?”

Advertisement

With questions of predictability from both the tenants and the planning commission, Airport General Manager Gary Rice said Friday that he expects to hear similar remarks from the City Council.

However, he noted, by the time the project is before the council the Santa Maria Public Airport Board of Directors will have selected a firm to proceed with a study that will outline the relocation options for the park.

The study, called a conversion impact report, is required before any mobile home park can be shut down. It consists of an in-depth analysis of each resident's situation plus various alternatives for relocation, Rice said. It will also answer all the questions of how and where residents will be moved.

During the Planning Commission hearing, Rice admitted there were some changes in the timing of the park closure but he reassured naysayers that the entire process will be open and public.

In October, the airport board requested firms interested in doing the report submit proposals and five companies answered, Rice said. It is expected a firm will be selected at the board's meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the airport district office at 3217 Terminal Drive.

Rice also noted he will recommend that the board consider offering three-year leases for tenants who are currently on a month-to-month arrangement. However, he added, that any lease decision is solely up to the board.

The Airport Business Park is proposed to include 16.3 acres of commercial and professional buildings, 132 acres of light manufacturing, 262.3 acres of recreational open space and 105 acres of conservation open space, all just south of the airfield.

The project has been planned to include measures to accommodate the federally protected California tiger salamander, a species that lives on the site.

Taking into account the sensitive habitat, the development has been scaled back to 740 acres from the original proposal of 1,095 acres.

A business park at the Santa Maria Public Airport has been deemed a crucial element to attracting higher paying jobs to the area, partly because airport property is more ready for development than other vacant land in the area. Plans for such a park have been in the works for years but endangered species and other policy issues had kept it grounded.

Malia Spencer can be reached at 739-2219 or mspencer@santamariatimes.com.

November 24, 2007