The Santa Maria City Council voted Tuesday to approve a new general plan that will help shape future land use decisions into 2045.
The “Santa Maria 2045 General Plan” has been in development since 2020, and it addresses the city’s projected growth of nearly 60 thousand new residents and more than 16 thousand new housing units by 2045.
Director of community development Chenin Dow told the council that on top of increasing density, the city will also need to grow by annexing land.
“We do have a significant amount of redevelopment that has occurred and higher densities that have occurred over time,” Dow told the council. “So looking at the remaining available developable sites, there simply aren't many left.”
Dow said the document attempts to balance the need for growth and preserving land for agriculture.
Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino said that balance is necessary in order to make space for a new high school.
“I think it's really important for people to realize we can't just stack and pack people on top of one another in our community, and have a healthy community,” Patino said.
The new general plan will create more opportunities for dense, downtown housing as well as rezone an area designated for commercial use to single family residential use.
The Santa Maria City Council voted unanimously to approve the new plan.
At their Tuesday meeting, the council also approved an application for a grant that would fund a new transportation loop in the city for pedestrians and bikers.
The application would ask the California Department of Transportation for roughly $30 million to fund the project.
