An appeal by Auto Fuels gas station to slow down the expansion of the Westside Neighborhood Clinic in Santa Barbara has run out of gas.

“It is without any hesitation that I would move to deny the appeal,” Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said.

The clinic at 621 W. Micheltorena St. wants to increase the number of medical and dental patients served from 4,502 to 11,200 annually, as part of a plan to demolish the existing two-story, 10,454-square-foot clinic and build a three-story, 11,149-square-foot medical, behavioral health and dental clinic, a building designed by the Cearnal Collective.

The owners of the nearby Auto Fuels station and El Ranchero Market have appealed the project, raising concerns about inadequate parking at the new facility. They hired the law firm of Reicker, Pfau, Pyle & McRoy LLP to represent them at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Attorney Mark Carney showed a series of photos of cars double-parked on the Auto Fuels property apparently to drop off Westside Clinic customers. He said the constant flow of drop-offs from motorists, including Uber, was hurting the gas station and market’s business.

“The only thing you can say is that, ‘This isn’t fair, this isn’t right, this has to stop,'” Carney told the council.

The project has 11 parking spaces on-site and another off-site parking lot with 22 parking spaces at 21 E. Constance Ave. A shuttle service would bring employees to and from the project site. That new clinic should have 44 parking spaces on site, according to the city’s municipal code, but the Planning Commission had previously granted a parking modification.

Carney also trashed a parking survey that was conducted in May2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that it was “fatally flawed,” and that it undercounted the number of daily trips to the clinic.

“Frankly, that’s garbage in, garbage out,” Carney said.

Councilman Eric Friedman disagreed. He poked fun at Carney’s comments about conducting the study during the height of the pandemic, stating, “Thanks for the trip down amnesia lane,” stealing a line from the movie “Dead Poets Society.”

He then said the clinic should not bear the responsibility for the lack of parking on the Westside.

“This comes from a lot of the planning that isn’t being done when we are redeveloping neighborhoods,” Friedman said. “The bigger issue is how we are planning neighborhoods in the future on parking. It shouldn’t be balanced on the back of the clinic.”

The vote was 6-0 to deny the gas station’s appeal. Councilman Oscar Gutierrez recused himself from the meeting out of an abundance of caution because he had previously walked the neighborhood with a representative of the clinic to explain the project’s expansion to neighbors.

The clinic had wide support from medical health officials in the community. The increase in patients is expected to help ease the long lines for services at Cottage Health and other facilities.