Neighbors of the site proposed for a new Orcutt senior center questioned the location during a Thursday meeting, and some pushed planners to put it in a different place.
The Orcutt Area Seniors in Service, OASIS, has proposed a main building and smaller structure adding up to 15,661 square feet near the corner of Clark Avenue and Foxenwood Lane.
The project would sit on nearly 5.3 acres labeled Key Site 18 in the Orcutt Community Plan.
The Luis OASIS Senior Center currently operates in portable buildings on Soares Avenue land leased from the Orcutt Union School District but slated for development.
Thursday’s meeting focused on the environmental analysis of the project, available online here, which cited many significant and unavoidable impacts.
The draft environmental impact report reviewed nine alternatives, including no project, using the existing site and exploring new sites, and identified a Foster Road location — long ago bypassed by OASIS — as the environmentally-superior choice.
Comments on the EIR will be accepted through Oct. 21, said Jeff Wilson, assistant director of the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department.
OASIS would continue serving a population primarily of senior citizens while hosting classes, a craft area and more.
OASIS, which has 1,400 members who come from throughout northern Santa Barbara County, has launched a $4 million campaign to building the new facility on land donated to the organization.
The project proposes hosting up to 12 events a year at the new site, with maximum attendance of 200 people and activities ending at 9 p.m.
Several public speakers at the meeting who live in the Southpoint Estates neighborhood just north of the project aired concerns about noise, traffic, and other impacts of the proposed senior center.
John Walk and Chuck Williams said both said they favored the Foster Road site that the report picked as the environmentally-superior choice.
Walk was concerned the building would only have one driveway for vehicle access, adding that the Orcutt Community Plan requires two access points.
Janet Blevins, a Lompoc resident and Santa Barbara County Action Network co-president, said the proposed site should remain as open space.
The low-lying site near a creek could become a problem for the senior center, she added.
“We’re just asking for trouble putting it in that location,” she said.
OASIS representatives were in the audience Thursday night and had a statement from Joe Sheaff, board chairman, to address concerns about the overall project and community rumors.
“First and foremost, OASIS is and always will be a senior center. We are not and will not be an event center with loud parties and events that will produce an excess amount of noise,” Sheaff wrote in his statement.
For 60 years, OASIS has operated in Old Town Orcutt, and some people worry the Foster Road site is too far away.
The next step for the project is compiling comments for the environmental report, and then being heard by the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission later this year.
Comments may be submitted through 5 p.m. Oct. 21, via mail to Planning & Development, Attn: Natasha Campbell, 624 W. Foster Road, Santa Maria, CA 93455; by email to ncambell@co.santa-barbara.ca.us; by telephone at 805.570.4871; or by fax at 805.934.6258
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
