city of lompoc general plan update & the bailey ave specific plan

Bailey Avenue Farmland

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*Settlement Helps Preserve Prime Farmland in Santa Barbara County-City of Lompoc Agrees to Reconsider Decision That Would Have Opened Door to Development of Prime Agricultural Land Within the Bailey Avenue Corridor. READ MORE!

While it has generally not been the practice of the OPEN program to comment on specific development proposals, the Bailey Avenue Specific Plan (BASP), adjacent to the City of Lompoc, was deemed worthy of project-specific review, since it would permanently convert 270 acres of prime agricultural lands outside the City of Lompoc (unincorporated County land) to extremely intensive urbanized development. This Specific Plan is perhaps the most important precedent-setting annexation proposal that the City has ever reviewed. The project would call for approximately 2,700 homes with mixed use commercial units of approximately 228,000 sq. ft. directly adjacent to some of the most productive agricultural land in the region, if not the State of California. Of primary importance is the inherent incompatibility of LAFCO and Santa Barbara County agricultural protection policies with the project proposal. Of particular relevance is the fact that Lompoc has sufficient infill vacancies to meet State housing mandates, and the project is not needed to meet the City’s projected growth numbers.

The project was heard in July 2010 by the City of Lompoc’s Planning Commission, which unanimously voted not to approve the potential expansion/annexation. The City Council then reviewed the project in September 2010. With Mayor Mike Siminski and Councilwoman Ann Ruhge dissenting, the council initially voted to leave the proposed development out of its General Plan Update, supporting the Planning Commission’s action in July. However, the “swing vote” on the Council (Tony Durham) subsequently asked to bring the project back for another vote, which then reversed the decision in favor of expanding the City’s boundaries to include development of the Bailey Avenue Specific Plan area.

On behalf of Santa Barbara County Action Network, the EDC then commenced legal action on November 19th, 2010 challenging the City of Lompoc’s certification of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for Phase I of the Lompoc 2030 General Plan Update (pertaining to the Housing, Land Use, and Circulation Elements) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Petition alleged that the City violated CEQA by approving the proposed annexation of three unincorporated areas, including the Bailey Avenue area, despite the existence of feasible alternatives that would have excluded those areas and thus substantially lessened environmental effects. In addition, the Petition alleged that the City inadequately analyzed and failed to lawfully mitigate the environmental effects of increased greenhouse gas emissions caused by the approved project.

Santa Barbara County Action Network (SB CAN) and the City of Lompoc settled this lawsuit in mid April of 2011. Under the Settlement Agreement, the City has agreed to reconsider their decision, including its finding that alternatives preserving the land for agricultural use are infeasible, prior to updating the Land Use Element portion of the 2030 General Plan Update. In addition to these issues, the other major decision will involve consideration of potentially changing mandatory “shall” policies in the Land Use and Circulation Elements to discretionary “should” policies. The future of Bailey Avenue and other land use decisions will be reconsidered during the summer of 2011 by the Lompoc Planning Commission in a series of public meetings, prior to the Commission then forwarding its recommendations for deliberation by the Lompoc City Council.

In addition to sending Bailey Avenue development plans back to the drawing board, the Settlement Agreement also provides that the City will conduct further analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, their impacts, and the mitigation of such impacts prior to adopting an updated Land Use Element under the General Plan 2030 Update.

OPEN staff worked closely with community members, including the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau, Grower-Shipper Association, Agricultural Advisory Committee, Citizens Planning Association, Santa Barbara Community Action Network, and many farmers and concerned citizens from the Lompoc area to garner opposition to the project. A local TV show was taped on the issue (with Christina McGinnis [OPEN Program Director], Richard Quandt [Grower-Shipper Association], and two Lompoc farmers), op eds were written, presentations were given to the groups mentioned above, and ultimately, the hearings were “standing room only” in favor of protecting the Bailey Avenue farmland. While the outcome of the first decision in 2010 was not in our favor, the issue will now be revisited by the new City Council during mid-2011.

OPEN will continue to stay involved to help preserve unincorporated prime agricultural lands from unnecessary conversion to urban development. This project has fostered significant working relationships between EDC and the agricultural community in Lompoc and other areas of the County.

Petition Filed 11-19-10