Key Site 11 Development in Santa Maria Will Be Dangerous

As a Montecito teenager in the 1970’s, I would walk from my home on Loureyro Road to the creek at North Jameson across from Fernald Point. I would go down into the creek, under the freeway, and emerge on the other side walking the railroad tracks until I saw the ocean and then walk down the dirt path to the beach. This is how kids in my neighbor would typically go to the beach.

If a train happened to be coming down the tracks when I popped out of the creek, I would simply cling to the chain link fence abutting the beach houses until the train passed. It didn’t matter to this indestructible teenager that the train was rushing by only three feet away. What could possibly go wrong? I was almost at my own private Montecito beach.

As a Santa Barbara High School Madrigal and aspiring jazz singer, this is the place where I could sing my scales and practice my music in private — there was no one around. I could swim in the water and sing as loudly as I wanted, and no one would bother me.

This route to the beach should have been shut down 50 years ago. If the beach access had been a little more difficult to traverse (like chain link fences at the creek tops), I wouldn’t have bothered.

Back on July 11, 2007, at a Santa Barbara County Planning Commission Meeting, immediate neighbors of Orcutt Key Site 11 told Planning Commissioners, like Michael Cooney, that they were scared of the proposed 33-unit mixed-use development traffic on Key Site 11, because they had witnessed kids being struck by motorists at the Clark Ave/Orcutt Road intersection. They had also witnessed other people being involved in accidents at that location.

While being stopped at the red light in front of the Jack in the Box, I was sitting in my car as another car ran a red light. There are three dangerously stacked up lights at that intersection — packed closely together — and I witnessed a head on collision where one car bounced off the other, and bounced toward me as I was waiting for my light to turn green. The car involved in the accident came within inches of wiping me out — the Tree Amigos Dad.

I had witnessed another accident while sitting at that same red light, when another car ran a red light and crashed into a big SUV. The lady in SUV, shaky, confused, but okay, came out of her car in the middle of the intersection with traffic whizzing by. I had to pull over in front of Key Site 11 on Clark Avenue and take her arm and guide her to the sidewalk. I waited until authorities arrived. The neighbors tried to warn the Planning Commissioners at the time how dangerous this intersection was, but the plan in 2007 moved forward. Eventually, and luckily, it was halted by Fish and Game.

Now the Santa Barbara Planning Commission, only 13 days after the developer’s introduction and without public input opportunities of the plan, have approved the rezoning of a development on Key Site 11 that has 150 apartments and is five times larger in scope than the 33 unit proposed development in 2007. (The developer, represented by Jacob Weintraub of TVJ Sons — owners of Santa Maria Toyota, Honda, and Kia — is Orcutt Ranch Clark Avenue LLC, which includes Pat Cusack.)

The county tried to waive LOS (level of service) traffic impacts for this project under the affordable housing element, but bona fide heroes at the City of Goleta (Mayor Pro Tem Luz Reyes-Martin, Councilmember Stuart Kasdin, and Councilmember James Kyriaco) spoke out courageously at the county housing element meeting about Goleta’s necessity to retain LOS and that the county, not the state, was proposing dropping LOS from the housing element. Goleta prevailed in its argument. Thus Goleta, and by default Orcutt Key Site 11, was still protected by LOS traffic impacts. Therefore, the Key Site 11 developer (TVJ Sons) would need to prove that this new development, traffic-wise, was safe.

It should be noted that TVJ Sons got the City of Santa Maria to waive failing LOS levels of “F” for its RV Storage facility on Preisker Avenue in Santa Maria in 2023. So, we don’t expect that TVJ Sons, or the county planning commissioners, will be undeterred by LOS levels that show this new 150-unit affordable housing development cannot be built.

Supervisor Lavagnino and Supervisor Nelson have already expressed how excited they are about this project — even before the straw vote to include it in the housing element. Supervisor Nelson even had his large re-election sign proudly displayed on Key Site 11 just weeks before the housing element vote and told Supervisor Hartmann at that meeting that he had secured water from the City of Santa Maria for this project. In 2007, the Tree Amigos of Orcutt showed that the then proposed 33-unit mixed use development on Key Site 11 exceeded traffic impacts. This fact didn’t seem to matter to the Santa Barbara planning commission or to the supervisors before they voted to include this project rezoning under the housing element. LOS traffic impacts were supposed to waived under the housing element, after all — so why would they care?

Just like the lack of action on Fernald Point all of these years, and the death of a Santa Barbara High School student, planning commissioners, supervisors, and developers turn a blind eye to obvious “red flag” safety issues that can be needlessly and easily avoided. Not one Orcutt Academy, Delta High School, or Orcutt Junior High School kid should be a casualty of the county’s inaction on protecting its youth. These students congregate at the Key Site 11 intersection after school. The Tree Amigos of Orcutt is encouraging all Santa Barbara County residents to email all five county supervisors and planning commissioners to tell them you do not want Supervisor Nelson and the developer (TVJ Sons) to build this development on Key Site 11 and request, once and for all, a permanent open space easement on Orcutt Key Site 11.

Correction: The original version of this story mistakenly identified Jacob Weintraub, Mike McNulty, and Mike Bouquet as developers on this project.