A former senior residential center on North Broadway in Santa Maria could become a temporary home to farmworkers before the rundown facility undergoes a major makeover.
Western Sky Communities, the owner of Laz-E-Daze Retirement Center in the 1300 block of North Broadway, is seeking permission to use it for farmworker housing on a short-term basis. The company plans to undertake more extensive renovations in the long term, according to Peter Gilli, planning division manager for the Santa Maria Community Development Department.
The Santa Maria Planning Commission reviewed the proposal in a recent study session. Hearings before the commission and the City Council could occur as soon as this summer, Gilli said.
In the short term, the facility would help provide housing for fieldworkers brought to Santa Maria under the federal H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers program, with buses taking workers to and from work sites. The program allows employers to bring in temporary farmworkers when there are not enough local workers to harvest produce.
A few blocks away, a recently renovated hotel is housing farmworkers. However, Gilli said, the two projects are quite different.
While Laz-E-Daze needs special approvals since it has been a residential facility, the old Budget Inn at the corner of Broadway and East Bunny Avenue doesn’t need unique permits as long as it continues to operate like a motel. This includes charging transient-occupancy taxes, or bed taxes, as required of all hotels and motels in the city.
Laz-E-Daze originally was a motel alongside Highway 101 before the freeway was rebuilt on the eastern edge of Santa Maria.
Sometime in the late 1960s, Laz-E-Daze received a permit to house senior citizens.
More recently, it served low-income residents and ended up being a draw for criminal activity that required a frequent police presence.
Today, the nearly four-acre site no longer bears the Laz-E-Daze name on the front sign, which now is covered in white paint.
The long-term redevelopment plans call for tearing down the structure and adding retail buildings along Broadway with apartments on the rest of the property.
“At this point, that’s extremely conceptual,” Gilli said. “They don’t have any approvals.”
For the short term, the owners and city staff are looking at what can be done to improve how the site looks since maintenance has lapsed. That includes fixing broken windows, painting and other minor repairs.
“They’re working with us on that, as well as making sure it meets all the health and safety codes,” Gilli said.
The short-term permit allowing farmworker housing would defer some improvements that typically would be required, such as sidewalks, utility lines and other infrastructure work.
Each year that passes would require more improvements at the site, however, so the deferral doesn’t stretch on, according to the proposal. By years three through five, costly work should be under way as an incentive to get started on the bigger project.
“That really becomes the time we hope the new development starts to become more attractive,” Gilli said.
— 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.