A pair of retail developments passed the Santa Maria Planning Commission on Wednesday night for two different vacant lots on opposite ends of town.

The first shopping center is one more piece of a larger development plan for 115 acres on the west side of South Blosser Road.

Two housing developments are already under construction - Lavigna, with 142 single-family homes between Battles Road and Marsala Avenue, and Siena consisting of 117 condos, roughly between Battles and Sonya Lane. A third, Mattei's Landing, is still in the design phase.

However, one of the developers involved, Towbes Group of Santa Barbara, is moving forward with plans for the 132,380-square-foot Westgate Marketplace to serve the new residents in the area.

The Planning Commission approved the marketplace Wednesday night by a 5-0 vote. The project will include 12 buildings on the 13.1-acre site along South Blosser between West Battles Road and La Brea Avenue.

The center was approved with six driveways, including a main entrance on Blosser Road midway between Battles and La Brea. That entrance will require a break in the existing median and traffic signal.

Pedestrian access is also an integral part of the project that is expected to tie in with the surrounding neighborhoods.

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The second development approved Wednesday night is also a retail center but is planned for a vacant lot on North Broadway.

The developer, Heritage Equities LLC and Porter Weinstock LLC, plans to build a 49,000-square-foot shopping center on North Broadway between Grant and Taylor streets.

This center would consist of two buildings - at 11,172 square feet and 37,370 square feet - with a 187-spot parking lot.

The smaller building would be at the southern portion of the site and the larger building on the northern portion with the parking lot in between, according to the planned development permit.

The larger building is expected to be a Vallarta Supermarket, a Hispanic grocery chain from Southern California.

This property is adjacent to existing single-family homes and the project's planned development permit includes measures to address potential noise issues from the retail activities.

The commission approved the project but not before discussion about the development's traffic impact.

Citing potential traffic problems, Planning Commission Chairman Tom Lopez was the lone no vote in the 4-1 decision.

Lopez had reservations about the location of the driveway on Grant Street and whether cars waiting to turn left at the nearby Grant and Blosser intersection would stack up and block the driveway.

Commissioner Rodger Brown shared the concern, and though he voted for the project said he wanted to be on record about the worries.

“I feel we are going to have some traffic (problems) in the future,” he said.

Rodger Olds, senior civil engineer for the city, told the commission that traffic was studied with the proposed driveway placement and was designed so that it wouldn't interfere with future development on the other side of Grant.

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

July 4, 2008