An agreement for a revised apartment complex proposal in Orcutt received approval Tuesday from the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, possibly heralding a new era for handling affordable housing projects amid state rules limiting local control.

The Key Site H property at 1331 E. Foster Road could see the development of a 99-unit affordable apartment complex, instead of a 61-unit project first proposed and approved.

The original plan proposed a three-story building close to Foster Road and was submitted under a state law that limits local lawmakers’ involvement in approving some housing projects as elected officials in counties and cities chafe at the loss of local control.

“Trying to make the best of it, I do think ultimately this 99-unit project is the best project to move forward,” Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson said.

Talks with the applicant and county staff led to a revised proposal and creation of a development agreement aimed at reducing the apartment complex’s impacts on neighbors.

Development agreements may be employed in the future to get more palatable projects when faced with proposals deemed unpleasant or otherwise incompatible with the community, Nelson told his colleagues.

“This is probably a new day for the county,” Nelson said. “I think this is an opportunity for us as a board, under these new dynamics that we have with projects that are getting entitled through state entitlement processes, to work with the developer, work with the community and have a different type of conversation.”

While the revised plan calls for more units, they would be placed in multiple buildings across the 4-acre site. Two-story buildings would sit closest to Foster, with three-story buildings farther away from the single-family homes that mostly sit south of Foster.

“I think what we’re seeing today is much superior,” Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann said.  

“I do think it’s a better project than what was originally offered,” chairman Steve Lavagnino said. 

The development agreement spells out land-use and other terms for the revised project proposed by AMG & Associates (AMG Land Development). For instance, the pact sets the maximum number of units, and calls for four smaller buildings across the site and not one large structure as initially proposed. Parking provisions also are included.

The pact means the developer won’t build the 61-unit project and that the county would process an application for the 99-unit complex.

Even with Tuesday’s unanimous vote by the board, a development plan spelling out project details and zoning clearance still would need to go to the Planning Commission for approval.

The new project would be near St. Joseph High School, Righetti High School, a single-family neighborhood of Edgewood, the Knollwood Terrace condominiums, the Knollwood Meadows apartment complex and Highway 101.

Neighbors raised concerns about existing traffic, much of it related to the high school campuses at the corners of Foster and Bradley roads.

Only Foster and Morning Ridge roads, one lane in each direction for both streets, provide access to the neighborhoods with some residents complaining that Morning Ridge has been used as a route from Union Valley Parkway.

Neighbors such as Rosie Rojo expressed concerns about increased traffic, parking problems and safety worries, adding that they have asked for speed humps or traffic calming measures on Morning Ridge Road. 

“The issue is that adding any type of high-density housing in our existing residential area without the county making necessary improvements and accommodations to the existing infrastructure is simply irresponsible and reckless for those that have lived there for decades and the future of this development,” Rojo said. 

However, Nelson said traffic calming measures, including a three-way stop at the intersection of Morning Ridge and Foster, may move forward with or without the project, noting that traffic safety concerns exist today. 

“We believe in traffic calming, and I think that this area is a perfect pilot project for a lot of strategies that we might be able to employ in that neighborhood,” Nelson said, “and that’s whether this project happens or not.”