Voters in Buellton will determine where the city should — and should not — potentially grow when casting ballots in the Nov. 5 election on a measure that leaders say aims to protect the community’s size and character.

Measure C2024 asks voters whether to extend and amend the urban growth boundary, first adopted in 2008. 

With the initial UGB set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, voters need to take action to ensure they continue to have a say in Buellton’s growth. 

“The point of this is to ensure that the city has the ability to plan for its future land uses, to accommodate future state housing mandates and to do so in such a way that maintains community character,” City Manager Scott Wolfe told Noozhawk.

With the UGB in place, the city may lack enough vacant land to meet future state mandates for new housing. That could lead to extremely dense developments and buildings much taller than the city’s current regulations allow.

“If we can expand our urban growth boundary a bit, we can accommodate that growth in a way that is thoughtful, that is a controlled and really lets the city hold the cards in terms of what the character of that new development would look like,” Wolfe said. 

If approved, the city could expand municipal services to those three areas if a development applies and meets certain milestones. 

Any proposed projects outside the areas established by the UGB would have to get voter approval for a development to proceed and municipal services provided. 

The current urban growth boundary remains the same as the city limits, but Measure C would add 123 acres for potential growth in three areas near the northeastern section of the city.

In recent months, Buellton’s planning commissioners and council members have discussed the topic during several meetings and workshops before trimming the proposal to include only 123 acres.

The original UGB directed development toward infill projects within the existing boundaries, rather than seeing the city limits move north, south, east or west. 

“I think the UGB has worked extremely well, and I’m very grateful for a more receptive city manager and City Council for the idea of adjusting and then extending the UGB for another 12 years,” Santa Barbara County Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann said during a City Council meeting earlier this year.

Growing to Buellton’s east would compromise a green belt of ranches and farms separating Buellton and Solvang, Hartmann said. 

West of Buellton is considered prime agricultural land used for growing various crops, while to the south sits the Santa Ynez River, somewhat of a natural barrier to expansion. 

The proposed UGB focuses on the expanding the city to the north, now home to pastures and grazing land. 

Hartmann said she was involved in the original urban growth boundary efforts and emphasized that it doesn’t give residents the right to review all proposed development.

“The UGB is to provide a safeguard so that if the City Council goes outside expected development scenarios and areas identified in the general planning process, then they need to involve the citizenry,” Hartmann said. “The UGB is not rezoning land. It is simply a statement that certain parcels are likely to be annexed into the city for development in a certain period.”

The UGB measure requires support from more than 50% of the voters to pass.

It is one of two on the ballot for Buellton voters. 

Measure D2024 asks Buellton voters to approve boosting the transient occupancy tax, or hotel bed tax, from 12% to 14%. People who stay in local hotels pay that tax.

Voters in the city of Solvang and Santa Barbara County also will consider similar hotel bed tax hikes so that the rate remains the same across the Santa Ynez Valley. The county bed tax is charged at hotels outside city limits, and an increase would not affect the rates in the local cities. 

Carpinteria voters will consider Measure B, which would raise that city’s bed tax from 12% to 15%.