Traffic concerns at an already congested intersection prompted the Santa Maria Planning Commission to reject a request to allow the existing Starbucks to add a drive-through operation.
The proposal would have required rebuilding the existing structure at 1201 E. Main St.
The building currently houses Starbucks along with Subway and Al Pho, both of which would have been left without space under the plan for a smaller building at the site. Demolition plans would have eliminated most of the structure to leave a 1,525-square-foot coffee shop with a drive-through option.
However, after neighboring properties aired concerns last month, planning commissioners voted to deny the request, and they formalized the action this week. Commissioner Tom Lopez abstained since he missed last month’s meeting.
“I haven’t really seen anything here tonight to change my opinion that I had at the last meeting,” Commissioner Tim Seifert said. “They’re either unwilling or can’t change the project.”
Opposition to the proposal came from a representative of a neighboring property owner who also is seeking to add a drive-through Starbucks at a nearby site, which is a block away from the congested intersection of concern.
The existing Starbucks, Al Pho and Subway sit adjacent to the Highway 101 northbound onramp with a traffic signal. Neighbors are a health and wellness center affiliated with Marian Regional Medical Center and a Home Motors auto dealership.
Drivers accessing the three restaurants, making left turns or U-turns nearby, prompted planning commissioners to express concerns about adding to an already busy intersection. Worries included traffic blocking ambulances headed to the hospital.
Project applicant Greg Fick, vice president of land development firm Tait & Associates, said a traffic study showed the new project would actually reduce the number of vehicles accessing the site daily.
“Before you that night there was absolutely no evidence this project was going to generate any more traffic,” he said.
The traffic study determined that adding a drive-through but eliminating two of the eateries would lead to about 700 fewer trips per day at the site.
Adding a drive-through option would be critical for the site’s success, Fick said, especially because of the uncertainty created by COVID-19.
He noted that staff originally recommended that the commission support the project.
Commissioners also noted possible adverse effects on the neighboring property, something Fick questioned.
“If our project has less trips than the existing condition, how is it possible that there’s a greater impact? It just does not make sense,” he added.
Planning commissioners’ denial of the project essentially prohibits any redevelopment on the property because of the perceived impact on a neighbor, Fick said, adding, “The only interest in his project is a competing interest.”
Last month, Jacob Weintraub, a representative for the owner of property now housing Home Motors, said they had a pending planned development permit for a quick-service food facility at 1313 E. Main St., “currently flagged for the same potential tenant as 1201 E. Main, which is Starbucks.”
“I’m not here tonight to nitpick 1201 and strengthen our position with Starbucks in view of the fact that any quick-serve food tenant would be successful in our proposed location at 1313,” Weintraub said at the Nov. 17 meeting. “I’m here tonight because 1201’s development has a poorly planned ingress and egress and is causing hardships to our current tenants, which we expressed concern about during the initial PD [planned development] process 15 years ago.”
The 1313 E. Main St. site sits farther away from the congested intersection with the Highway 101 northbound onramp and Nicholson Avenue, where Highway 101 northbound offramp traffic ends up after leaving the freeway.
The proposed project at 1201 E. Main St. would heighten the impacts on the current and future tenants at 1313 E. Main St., Weintraub added.
“We will not allow our private property to be used as a public turnaround by customers of a poorly planned adjacent project,” he 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.