Council, planning commission will devote research to annexation plan

A joint meeting of the Lompoc City Council and Planning Commission lasted more than three hours Thursday night, but laid the groundwork for the next 10 to 20 years of the city's future.

For the first time in the update process, elected and appointed officials spoke directly about their thoughts on the General Plan, voting informally in favor of encouraging infill development along North H Street, and suggesting that city annexations along Bailey Avenue, and the proposed PXP residential development be studied further.

Mayor Dick DeWees spoke against most annexation proposals, including expressing some misgivings about the Bailey Avenue Corridor annexation taking over prime agricultural land - a project the city has already begun planning for.

“I've heard people say, ‘Well, it's a good thing to square off the city limits,' and I ask “Why?” said DeWees, who also serves on LAFCO, the county board which would have final approval of any city annexation.

Taking a different view, Councilman Mike Siminski said he was generally in favor of studying city expansion, as a way of taking control of residential developments that the county has allowed on Lompoc's outskirts.

“I think that if there is to be residential development, that it's inside the city of Lompoc,” Siminski said, pointing out that Vandenberg Village and Mission Hills benefited from numerous city services, without contributing taxes in return.

The city officials asked that both Bailey Avenue and land encompassing River Park and River Bend Park be included for future annexation study.

The group voted to keep considering the Wye intersection annexation request, which would bring 10 acres from the northeast corner of the intersection into the city limits, and rezone it to accommodate 120,000 square feet of commercial space.

Before the officials' decision, Steve Orosz, acting as an agent for the property owner, said his client wished the land to be considered for annexation, with or without a change to the site's residential zoning.

Despite several speakers' opposition, the proposed PXP annexation three miles north of the city limits was kept in consideration.

The five planning commission members all advised not to include PXP, but councilmembers Will Schuyler, DeWayne Holmdahl and Siminski voted to continue consideration of the 804-acre former oil production area, which is proposed as a residential development.

“I think it's a mistake. I think it's very bad planning,” former city council member and planning commissioner Jan Keller said Friday.

A planned discussion about updating the General Plan's vision statement was deferred to a later meeting.

In the next step of the update process, Rincon Consultants of San Luis Obispo will take input from the city officials and craft “land use scenarios” to be approved or rejected for future study.

Rincon consultant Richard Daulton said Thursday night that the scenarios will help the public and city officials to visualize the interrelated results of zoning and annexation changes.

“You'll know what (Lompoc's) build-out will look like, how many people the city might have, what impacts you might see,” Daulton said.

Within the next two months, the consultants anticipate returning to a City Council meeting to have one land-use scenario chosen as the preferred one, which will then be studied in greater detail by the engineering firm for environmental study.