KEY SITE 3 IS MORE THAN JUST A NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE
It will affect all of us in the Santa Maria Valley but mostly Orcutt residents. Key Site 3 is the gateway all people including visitors see of our beautiful corner of the world.
Key Site 3 is the entry way to Orcutt, we must preserve the entrance of our area with a better thought-out development.
Current project details:
Site is directly off southbound 101, before Clark Ave. Key Site 3 will be the first visual people see when approaching Orcutt on northbound 101.
119 single-family homes clustered on 9.3 acres.
The middle two lots totaling 8 acres was previously approved Multi-Family Residential Orcutt (MRO). Low-income apartment that is not part of this project or shown here.
Houses are minimally 1,100 sq. ft. on 3000 sq. ft. lots.
The Developer wants to utilize an easement granted when the land was zoned RR10 (10 acre Ranchettes). At the time the easement was, County granted a maximum of 14 parcels/homes would have utilized a private road. The current homeowners will now be required to help maintain a private road accessed by hundreds of homes.
County changed zoning 3 decades later without the consideration of the privately held road.
With just the 119 homes, county traffic model shows an increase of 300 cars a day. Traffic will increase to 800 cars a day when MRO is built adding another 169 units, for a total of 279 units on only 17 acres.
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
PLANNING COMMISSION
November 2020 Hearing
HOW IT WILL AFFECT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND STREET
All Neighborhoods off Stillwell – In last 6 months we have had 2 accidents at the stop sign at Stillwell and Ashbrook. And one at the Mailboxes at the curve on Stillwell. This will only increase with added densely packed developments.
Chancellor St, Vanessa Dr, Hamilton Ln: Increase cars by a factor of 20x; Increasing to 40x thru gate, loss of privacy, private road being stolen from its owners utilizing an easement that was signed in the 1980’s for a grazing property zoned for 10-acre parcels lot development. Increase road maintenance.
Stillwell Rd after curve: 20x the traffic on Private road not equipped to handle this type of development. Increase road maintenance. Potential of 800 new vehicle trips per day once apartments are built.
Black Oak Dr: 20x traffic on Stillwell.
Cobblestone Creek: more traffic entrance near a bottom of a hill, likelihood of accidents coming from north and south.
Jensen’s Crossing: entrance right after a curve, more accident prone
Cimarron Estates: Very dangerous Stop sign, high danger due to increase traffic; two accidents in the last 6 months.
Town & Country Mobile Estates: Increase traffic
Sunnyhills Mobile Home Community: Loss of views of land that had always been approved for ranchettes
Once whole development is finished with MRO they will have all these units on 17 Acres of land adding 800 vehicle trips going down Stillwell.
Putting that in perspective there will be more units than Black Oak, Cobblestone, Jensen’s Crossing, and Cimarron Estates combined on a just a bit more land than Cobblestone.
Current neighborhoods line up:
Black Oak: 27.5 acres with 64 homes
Cobblestone: 14 acres with 57 homes
Jensen’s Crossing: 10.5 acres with 56 homes
Cimarron: 11.5 acres with 37 homes
Disadvantages to the neighborhood:
Lack Of Public Safety - The increase in traffic and high speeds creates a dangerous environment for pedestrians; school children, families, pets, joggers and cyclists.
Greater noise - When traffic increases in neighborhoods, the noise will also increase since more vehicles are passing through. This can disrupt the lives of people who reside there.
Congestion on narrow roads that are not intended for high volume traffic.
Other Concerns:
• Light pollution
• Property value loss
• An eyesore architecturally for what is the gateway of our rural/peaceful community.