This week the Santa Maria City council hit a snag as it continued to explore future growth of the region. The city is building out its land-use plan for the next two decades.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, members took up future housing development and had three choices for potential growth: One would have the city annex land for future development, another would allocate land within the city and the third combines the two.
During public comment many people pushed for building inside the city to keep future development away from agricultural land. Others pushed to build on annexed land.
“Our bottom line is, we need more land for housing. The city is already crowded with excessive traffic west of the 101,” Lindy Hatcher, with the Home Builders Association of the Central Coast said. Hatcher prefers the annexation option.
But, in a 3-2 vote, the council chose a fourth option that wasn’t even on the table.
They opted to analyze an area in southern Santa Maria that doesn’t have farmland on its borders and is on the east side of Highway 101. But, city staff cautioned it’s not ideal for development because of resident salamanders and existing oil wells.
Local housing activist Alhan Diaz-Correa with the Community Environmental Council does not want to see farmland developed. But he’s also focused on ensuring any new housing serves the low-income residents who so desperately need it.
“We believe that the city should prioritize the residents and families who currently live here and not for future communities that will one day maybe live here if we build above moderate housing,” Diaz-Correa said.
Diaz-Correa said many Santa Maria residents earn far less than the official figure of $70,000 that qualifies a family for “very low” income housing. He said when he thinks of very low income he thinks of minimum wage workers. People who make less than 30,000-dollars a year.
For now, city staff will need to prepare an environmental impact report for the south-east side. And the city will continue working more broadly on its general plan.
