Five years after a stop-work order shut down a Santa Maria asphalt refinery, the previously problem-plagued plant is getting ready to reopen with a new owner and operator.

The CAP Resolution Partners — doing business as Santa Maria Road Materials — received unanimous approval from the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission last week for a change in owner, operator and guarantor.

“This is a viable project turning something that is defunct into something that will actually help the local community,” Fifth District Commissioner Vincent Martinez said.

Third District Commissioner John Parke called it “an incredibly important project.”

The facility will supply local asphalt needs, absorb locally produced oil from inland wells and provide resources for large landowners to remain in agriculture, he added.

“I think the report has been comprehensive, and the assurances regarding compliance and regulations give me nothing but optimism and confidence,” Second District Commissioner Kate Ford said.

The unanimous decision, rare for an oil-related topic for the county panel, was just one step toward the restart of the facility at 1700 Sinton Road west of Santa Maria.

Later this month, representatives of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District and Santa Barbara County Planning and Development will visit the refinery to confirm whether dozens of violations from 2021 have been fixed and the plant can resume operating.

The refinery has existed for 100 years and is perfectly located to get heavy crude oil deemed perfect for asphalt to the facility, according to the new owners. It also sits near the rail line.

The asphalt refinery operated from 1995 to 2021 under the previous owner/operators of California Asphalt Production, formerly known as the Greka Refining Co. and then Santa Maria Refining Co.

With the refinery closed, oil has been trucked to Pentland in Kern County, or Los Angeles.

The new owners have spent the past year installing state-of-the-art boilers and other upgraded equipment at the facility while armed with more than $20 million for efforts.

Santa Maria Road Materials — with Charles “Chip” Moore and David Fields as managing partners — has extensive industry experience.

Fields worked at the plant for 18 months, but left two years before the county issued a stop-work order. The county found no major incidents while Fields previously worked at the site, county Planning Commission staff said.

The new owners acquired the plant and property via bankruptcy and have invested more than $12 million so far. They have about 25 employees on the payroll and expect to hire a few more.

Another step for reopening has included paying delinquent fees and 14 years of property taxes, officials said.

They hope to restart the plant operations in mid-September, recognizing that the state has an asphalt shortage after last April’s closure of a refinery in Benicia.

“It’s been a long road to actually get to this hearing date,” Moore said, recalling that the first meetings with the county occurred in 2022.

Throughout the discussion, some speakers offered diplomatic comments about former operator Greka and its leader, Randeep Singh Grewal, who led several firms with Greka in the title and other companies with different names.

“I wouldn’t be here if they were (involved),” Fields said, adding that several other current staff echoed the sentiment.

The new owners’ attorney, Beth Collins, a land-use attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, emphasized that the current owners and operators have no current ties to Greka or Grewal.

Before the vote, Collins called the commission’s decision “a no-brainer.”

She said the previous operator on the county permits “has an abhorrent record, which resulted in the plant accruing several violations after significant deferred maintenance and neglect, and the entity’s now bankrupt.”

In comparison, the new owner is “a viable, well-financed, capable, experienced owner who has already invested significantly, collaborated effectively with all the regulators to bring this facility back to life,” she added. “This is quite obviously a superior owner, operator, guarantor.”