A proposed gas station and convenience store near a busy intersection in Orcutt has received approval from the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors despite traffic concerns.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the board rejected an appeal and approved the project planned for a vacant 0.82-acre lot at the southeast corner of Orcutt Road and Lakeview Road.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino did not participate in the item to avoid any appearance of bias. Vincent Martinez, his recent appointee to the county Planning Commission, had represented the project’s appellants.
The service station would include a 5,054-square-foot commercial building, including a convenience store and a detached 2,814-square-foot canopy with four fuel dispensers.
PR Investments, owner of the nearby Evergreen Shopping Center, and tenant Far Western Liquor appealed the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission’s October approval, claiming it was inconsistent with the Land Use and Development Code and Orcutt Community Plan, could cause traffic to exceed acceptable levels and violated county rules to place utility lines underground.
Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson said he recognized the concerns regarding traffic in the area, but also noted that the site previously housed a gas station.
Nelson vowed to look at solutions to fix the nearby intersections of Lakeview Road, Skyway Drive and Highway 135.
“I’m satisfied that the applicant has gone through the proper process to make their project approvable and I’m comfortable with approving it, but I’m also making the commitment to continue to work on making sure that intersection is as safe as possible for the future,” he said.
“This is really a lightning rod project for a long-standing problem,” said chair Joan Hartmann, who represents the Third District. “It doesn’t seem fair to deny them because of something that’s existed for such a long time.”
Complicating the traffic issue is that the county owns some of the roads in the area. Caltrans is responsible for Highway 135, and Skyway Drive belongs to the City of Santa Maria.
Lakeview Junior High School also is located nearby, adding to the traffic congestion.
The developers will be required to install signs prohibiting left turns or through movement during peak periods — 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. — on the northbound and southbound approaches at the Orcutt Road/Lakeview Road intersection. That means that during those hours, drivers can only make right turns onto Lakeview Road.
The appellants raised doubts about the proposed mitigation measures.
“It’s just going to exacerbate a very, very bad traffic congestion situation that presently exists,” said Paul Prather, co-owner of PR Investments.
Their attorney also expressed concerns that drivers will turn into the Spencer’s Fresh Markets’ parking lot to bypass the restrictions and access Highway 135 and Orcutt Road during those peak periods.
The applicant’s land-use consultant, Brian Tetley, said the troubled intersections require a regional solution that shouldn’t fall on the developer.
“There’s nothing the applicant can do other than satisfy the policies that are in place, which they’ve done to improve the situation,” Tetley said.
Traffic planner Will Robertson from the county Public Works Department said they considered requiring a raised median to prevent left turns and through movement, but deemed it infeasible because of school bus traffic.
The county traffic engineers typically dislike turn restrictions based on time periods, he added.
“But in this case, we all agreed that there was just no solution for this intersection,” Robertson said.
The intersection has been on the radar as needing improvements since Robertson began working for the county 20 years ago.
“We’ve wanted to fix it. We can never come up with a solution, and any solution that does work requires the City of Santa Maria and Caltrans to be part of the project,” Robertson said.
County planning staff also said the project meets the Orcutt Community Plan and land-use codes and that the applicant agreed to place utility lines at the site underground.
Tetley noted that the application for the project had been submitted more than four years ago.
— 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.