A Quick Quack Car Wash, another Starbucks Coffee Company shop and a commercial realty firm’s new home will fill the site of two closed restaurants at a high-profile location in Santa Maria. 

The Santa Maria Planning Commission voted 3-0 Wednesday to approve permits and other matters related to a nearly 4-acre site at 1423 and 1431 S. Bradley Road, just west of Highway 101. 

Chairman Tim Seifert plus commissioners Robert Dickerson and Tom Lopez voted in favor. Commissioner Yasameen Mohajer did not participate due to a potential conflict of interest, and Commissioner Esau Blanco was absent.

“You guys are good to go,” Seifert said after the vote.

To make way for the new businesses, plans call for demolition of the former Roadhouse Grill restaurant’s home, a 7,070-square-foot building.

A new 3,596-square-foot car wash, which could be the first Quick Quack Car Wash in Santa Barbara County, will be built along the northern edge of the site and include 22 vacuum stalls for customers to use. 

Customers would stay in their vehicles the entire time and buy the services at a pay station.

“Staff did look at the queuing very closely, and the 30 vehicles proposed is much more than we would ever expect to see at a car wash,” said Cody Graybehl from the city’s Planning Division.

John Pierce, senior vice president of Tower Investments, said they received significant interest from car wash operators. 

“We went with Quick Quack primarily because of the quality of this particular operator,” he said.

The new 2,300-square-foot drive-through coffee shop will include an 850-square-foot outdoor patio area. The drive-through lane queue would accommodate up to 17 vehicles. The Starbucks will sit at the southeast corner at the intersection of Bradley Road and existing driveway.

Since the lot will be split into three parcels, one condition of approval involved a reciprocal traffic access and parking agreement to ensure the traffic circulation remains. 

Another condition called for signage to help direct drivers to the back of the car wash to get in line for the service. 

During a study session in May, planning commissioners sought changes including more subdued colors for the car wash to replace the bright shades of yellow and green. Instead, the color scheme will include various brown, beige and tan shades along with light orange and auburn accent tones for more southwest design.

While not part of the Wednesday’s action, plans also call for the former Hometown Buffet building to get a makeover to house Pacifica Commercial Realty. Offices are allowed under existing zoning, and adequate parking is available. Minor changes to the building façade are proposed.

The switch to office space would require 41 spaces, well below the 69 existing spaces established for the restaurant. 

The two closed restaurants have been empty for years with chain link fence erected to surround the site.

Overall, the three projects will revitalize an aging center, according to Brian Schwartz with Urban Planning Concepts.

“Having new landscaping, new buildings, new signage will really enhance that and hopefully encourage more redevelopment in that older center, provide a little more tax base for the city as well,” Schwartz added.

Nearby, south of the closed restaurants, sits a closed multi-screen theater building along with a Taco Bell, the financially shaky Red Lobster and Joann Fabric and Crafts. 

Another huge empty building, the former Costco home, sits to the north of the proposed development. 

This is at least the third new Starbucks proposed for the city. One on East Main Street is under construction and will replace another nearby.

In June, commissioners also granted approval of a drive-through only Starbucks proposed for an empty lot at the southwest corner of West Betteravia Road and Skyway Drive/Blosser Road. It would operate 24 hours a day but have no indoor or outdoor seating.