Laguna Blanca School was sent a notice of violation last week for enrolling more students at its Hope Ranch campuses than are allowed under its conditional use permit, according to the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department.

The school’s conditional use permit currently allows 330 students across the upper and middle campuses. However, the school has enrolled about 355 students for the fall 2021 term, school spokeswoman Tara Broucsqualt confirmed to Noozhawk.

“We have successfully projected enrollment each year by utilizing previous patterns of yield and attrition,” Broucsqualt said in a statement to Noozhawk. “The variation this year was due to significantly lower attrition than in recent years.”

Part of the campus, at 4125 Paloma Drive in Santa Barbara, is zoned in a residential area and partly zoned in a recreation area, and in both cases a school is allowed only a conditional use permit, according to Travis Seawards, Planning and Development review division deputy director. Other schools located in similarly zoned areas also require a conditional use permit, he added.

While the Planning and Development Department received complaints from Hope Ranch residents speculating that the school increased its enrollment, the department did not issue the notice of violation until after the principal of the school confirmed the over-enrollment, Seawards told Noozhawk.

“What that means is that they have been found to be not in compliance with their conditional use permit,” he said, explaining that in general, the department gives people 30 days to resolve the issue or ultimately they could receive a fine. 

However, in this case, Laguna Blanca already had submitted an application at the beginning of 2021 to amend the permit to allow an increased enrollment of 385 students, Seawards said. Because the school already had filed an application to amend the permit, no action will be taken until the application is ultimately approved or denied, he added.

If the application is approved, the school will be able to keep the extra students and enroll up to 385 students. If the application is denied, the over-enrolled students will have to be sent elsewhere, according to Seawards.

The amendment application is pending a traffic study done by the school to show that increased enrollment will not have an impact on neighborhood traffic, and Seawards said he expects that study to be complete in early 2022.

Many Hope Ranch residents have complained about the increased traffic, saying that it is a direct effect of the over-enrollment. Some residents say they feel unsafe walking the streets of their neighborhood, and others have said that they have almost been struck by vehicles.

Until the traffic study comes out, it cannot be confirmed that the increase is directly related to the extra 25 students who are enrolled at Laguna Blanca.

Broucqsault said the school is aware of the concerns of the Hope Ranch residents regarding the traffic.

“We have been in communication with the county, the Hope Ranch general manager and the Hope Ranch board, and we are in the process of exploring ways to mitigate these concerns,” she said. “Our proposal for an amendment to the CUP is still in process.”

While the violation process is “fluid,” Seawards said the school is actively working on providing the data needed to amend the conditional use permit. 

“They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing at this point to remedy the violation,” he said.

— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.