GROWER-SHIPPER ASSOCIATION OF SANTA BARBARA AND SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTIES 534 E Chapel St • Santa Maria, CA 93454 • (805) 343-2215 November 7, 2023
City Council, City of Santa Maria
c/o [email protected]
Re: City of Santa Maria General Plan Update Preferred Land Use Alternative, 11/7/2023 Item 13.a
Dear Mayor Patino and Council Members:
The Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties represents over 170 growers, shippers, farm labor contractors, and supporting agribusinesses. The City of Santa Maria serves as the home for many different businesses and employees that are directly and indirectly interdependent with the wellbeing of local agriculture. Our members grow diverse field and nursery crops such as broccoli, strawberries, wine grapes, vegetable transplants, flowers, and tree fruit. We applaud the City’s outreach efforts to multiple stakeholders in updating its General Plan. We have been actively engaged throughout the process and appreciate the opportunity to serve on the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). We appreciate the opportunity to comment on several items of particular importance to agriculture in the coming years at this step in the process.
We encourage the City Council to approve the Infill Alternative - B. Alternative B would protect nearby agricultural resources that support so many jobs and businesses within the City, as well as other goals such as a vibrant Downtown, walkability, and housing affordability. We further support policy changes that enable this alternative, such as increased densities. If the City Council does nevertheless approves the hybrid land use alternative, instead of converting prime, flat agricultural lands, we encourage the City to pursue potential conversion of hilly farmlands to the east of the City. Even so, such conversions would still result in the permanent loss of unique farmlands and farmlands of statewide importance and should not be taken lightly.
Furthermore, we understand that the addition of a school site in the northwest portion of Santa Maria has been a topic of conversation. Blosser Road currently provides a buffer between agricultural operations and surrounding land uses; locating a school to the west of Blosser Road would have major negative ramifications for both the immediate site being converted, as well as the agricultural operations on nearby lands. We would prefer a school site be established within the existing City limits via infill development, as opposed to being inserted in the midst of prime farmland, and would therefore support the recommended land use designation changes to achieve the infill development.
Finally, we are concerned with potential land use conflicts resulting from allowing low density residential development west of A Street in Area 9 that is unrelated to the neighboring industrial and agricultural uses. We are concerned that this would create predictable and significant conflicts for the existing and future industrial and agricultural uses, as well as prospective residents, and urge you to decline these changes.
We appreciate the City’s extensive outreach on this important effort and thoughtful consideration of stakeholder feedback. We encourage the City Council to adopt Alternative B: Infill, lay the foundation to avoid development of a school site west of Blosser Road, and to maintain the current land use designations in Area 9.
Sincerely,
Claire Wineman, President