A private school’s proposal to create a campus of yurts on city-owned property added up to a denial by the Buellton Planning Commission amid multiple concerns raised by neighbors and other residents.

The four members tied twice Thursday night in votes to reject the request for a conditional use permit. Commissioners Marcilo Sarquilla and Kasey Kump favored denial while Chair Shannon Reese and Commissioner Brian Campbell supported the proposal.

“It effectively will be a denial of the project — failure to make a decision which will result in this moving to the City Council,” City Manager Scott Wolfe said near the end of the meeting that lasted more than three hours.

Hundred Hills School, led by applicants Whitney Chanana and Sundeep Chanana, intends to install six yurts, or California Round House structures, on the city-owned land formerly known as the Willemsen Dairy. 

The structures would serve as classrooms, administration building and restrooms. The campus would be surrounded by a fence with one gate for entry. A plaza with a flagpole also would be installed.

Based on the Waldorf School philosophy of developing students’ intellectual, artistic, and practical skills, Hundred Hills would begin with preschool and kindergarten classes, adding another grade annually through fourth grade. In total the school would have a maximum of 50 students at the site.

Plans call for the school to operate from the city-owned land for five years and then relocate to another location to add fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. 

“Hundred Hills isn’t asking to be on that site for the next 100 years or whenever,” said Chinyelu Kunz, joint head of school, parent liaison and faculty lead for Hundred Hills. 

“They’re asking for an opportunity to get the school started so that families that live in Buellton, families that live in the surrounding area, can have options for their children as opposed to not being able to have a place for their young children to go,” added Kunz. 

Several speakers shared about the shortage of preschool slots in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Residents of the neighborhood expressed concern about traffic and other impacts expected due to a school Kate Hauck called “private, selective and expensive,” likely putting it out of reach for many Buellton families.

“We’re not saying no to education,” Hauck added. “We’re saying yes to community, to neighborhoods that are livable, walkable, safe and peaceful.”

“I do not support our public land supporting private ventures that serve a very small number of residents,” said Kady Fleckenstein during public comment.

The planning panel’s decision didn’t center on the school’s quality or the community’s need for more educational opportunities, she added.

“It’s about whether or not this property is the spot for it and I’m here to say it is not,” Fleckenstein said. 

But Hundred Hills supporter Katie Isaacson Hames noted The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara leases land from the Goleta Union School District. 

“It’s another example of a private school using land owned by not the city, but a school district, so the public school system benefits from that lease income,” Isaacson Hames said. 

If the site remains vacant, it could be considered surplus land under state law making the property vulnerable for future development of affordable housing, said Wolfe, the city manager.

In addition to the land use matter, the City Council will consider whether to lease the land to the school. The Hundred Hills price for leasing the land remains under negotiations, but will become public.  

“I hate to have essentially a non-decision when you’ve invested all this time,” Reese told the audience after the tie votes. 

“Neither of these move forward without both of these moving forward through that channel,” Reese added, referencing the conditional use permit plus the lease.