Balancing between providing much needed affordable housing and protecting the city's existing businesses, the Santa Maria Planning Commission wrestled Wednesday night with a proposal to change a roughly

2-acre industrial site to residential.

Ultimately, the commission voted 4-1 to recommend that the City Council approve the plan to construct Villa del Sol on a vacant piece of property off Oakley Court. Commissioner Etta Waterfield was the lone dissenter.

Developers are proposing 36 affordable units on the 2.3-acre, triangular site just north of Knudsen Way and south of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad tracks.

The property is zoned for general manufacturing, but the developer is asking to change that to high-density residential.

During the public hearing, the commission received letters from nearby business owners who are concerned that introducing new residents will eventually impede their business practices.

Officials from AC Warehousing LLC, northeast of the proposed project's site, pointed out that they operate 24 hours a day. Additionally, they noted the excessive noise of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad operations that run between the properties.

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Project architect Gil Palacios told commissioners that any concerns about noise can be dealt with during the planned development permit process and that the developer would consider language in the rental agreement highlighting the noise for potential residents. The city has made that a requirement on other projects in noisy areas.

For a time, commissioners appeared poised to continue the discussion to a future meeting, but Palacios noted an urgency in the project timeline. The proposal needed to move forward to the City Council because further delay would jeopardize the plan's state and federal tax credits. If the tax credits are lost, he added, the project would die.

Palacios told the commission the project has been in the works for about five years and this is the proposal that was created with city staff.

In recent years, city planners have been against changing industrially zone property to residential, but with the addition of a large swath of industrial land on the city's western edge, and the approval of the Santa Maria Public Airport Business Park, staff say they are more comfortable supporting this change.

Additionally, staff pointed out that the industrial property has been marginalized because it is now surrounded by mostly residential uses.

The two- and three-bedroom units would spread over six two-story buildings, according to the Planning Commission's written staff report. The project also includes a one-story recreation and office building that will house a computer lab, laundry facilities, a multi-purpose room, and offices.

The developers of Villa del Sol were able to secure $132,820 from Santa Maria's share of federal Community Development Block Grant funds for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The city approved the allocation with the stipulation that if the land-use changes are not secured, the money will go back to the city for reallocation.

The project met the city's CDBG priority of providing affordable housing.

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

June 19, 2008