A medical office building proposed for the site of the empty Parks Plaza Theatre building in Buellton sailed through the Planning Commission on Thursday night, avoiding the strong opposition that arose when a popular burger restaurant sought moving onto the site.
The project is planned for a 1.48-acre site at 515 McMurray Road, the same location that In-N-Out Burger tried to go but encountered strong opposition because of traffic concerns.
The Cottage Health medical office building would include specialty care such as cardiac rehabilitation, diagnostic imaging and oncology on the second level with primary care providers filling the third level. The main lobby and elevator would be located on the first level.
“I think it’s a very well-designed project,” Commissioner Marcilo Sarquilla said. “When you go the dentist or even the doctor’s office you kind of feel down, but that’s uplifting to go to a site looking like that. Very well done.”
Commissioners Sarquilla plus Shannon Reese and Kasey Kump voted 3-0 to approve the conditional use permit and final development plan.
“We feel like we’ve gone through a complete and thorough planning review process,” Heidi Jones of Meraki Land Use Consulting said.
Due to the site’s slope, the building would appear to be only two stories tall from McMurray Road, but three stories tall from Highway 101 and the west side of the property. The first level would include some parking spaces.
With the burger eatery blocked in December 2023, the new applicant proposed a multi-level medical office building totaling 34,000 square feet in floor area.
The Cottage building would feature a mixture of agrarian with a twist of modern architectural styles.
The applicant has sought modifications to the city’s 35-foot-high limit. Marriott is three stories, and a hotel planned nearby would be four stories tall.
Unlike the previous plan for the site, the medical office building’s traffic impacts reportedly would be minimal, staff said. One left-turn lane on westbound Highway 246 to access Highway 101 would infrequently extend beyond its capability, but that’s expected to happen only 5% of the time between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., staff added.
Additionally, reciprocal access would continue among the parking lots for the new medical offices, McDonald’s, the Marriott hotel and the Chumash Employment Resource Center.
The project proposes 119 parking spaces, above the 116 required. At the previous suggestion of planning commissioners, the applicant also included five long-term and short-term bicycle spaces.
The project underwent conceptual and preliminary reviews last year and received generally favorable comments from the planning panel.