The Buellton City Council voted to uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to reject James Buell’s proposed vehicle storage lot on Thomas Road.

Later into the night, the council unanimously approved the city’s 2009-10 $8.5 million budget, down from $10.3 million last year.

For almost two hours on June 25, Buell and his lawyer argued that his property was the only suitable area in the valley for a storage lot, while nearby property owners said it would blight the commercial area as well as cause other problems.

In a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Russ Hicks and Councilmember Ed Andrisek in the minority, the council denied the appeal by Buell to overturn a unanimous vote by the Planning Commission to reject his proposal to build an outdoor storage lot for boats, trailers, campers, and other vehicles on Thomas Road, just east of McMurray Road and north of Damassa Road.

 

Community objections

Though opponents of the storage lot complained the project did not adhere to the area’s commercial zoning requirements, they also unfurled a list of other objections.

Those objections related to the inconsistency with community design guidelines, inadequate screening of the property, security issues and insufficient conditions regarding the storage of hazardous materials.

Buell’s project was approved by Planning Director Marc Bierdzinski on Nov. 27.

However, nearby property owners appealed the ruling, and on April 16 the Planning Commission upheld the appeal and rejected the project.

Though Commissioner Lois Craig was absent, she wrote a letter to her colleagues urging them to vote “no” on the project.

At the meeting, Buell’s grandson, Dean, created a picture montage of all the RVs, campers, boats and other large vehicles parked around Buellton.

“Some of these legally parked,” he said. “Some illegally parked. And either way, they’re way more than an eyesore for everybody than they would be behind a screened location. I think this shows the true impact as to why it’s important to get these off the streets.”

Councilmember Victoria Pointer told Buell that the city council had tried to put an RV ordinance into the municipal code to get them off the streets, but city residents strongly opposed it.

Buell told the council that if he built a storage yard but it became incompatible with a handful of vacant proposed properties to the north and south, then he would vacate his lot.

One of those property owners, Mark J. Herthel, said he would be developing the future home of his company, Platinum Performance, on three of the lots in the near future.

He said glass windows that would be put into his multi-story buildings would face the storage yard, compelling him to have his buildings redesigned and moved to a different area on his property.

 

Hammer it out

Andrisek encouraged council members and the protesting property owners to hammer out a deal with Buell.

“You’re never going to have a neighborhood where everyone on both sides of your street appreciates what you’re doing,” Andrisek said.

Despite Hicks’ support of Buell’s project, he did say he was concerned about Buell’s offer to vacate his storage business once empty properties began development.

Envisioning a council room packed with angry people who had to vacate their own property from the storage yard, Hicks said, “I wouldn’t want to be here for that meeting.”

Though Buell, a descendant of the family Buellton was named after, could now go back to the Planning Department, change his proposal and resubmit it for consideration, he told the Journal that he had “exhausted all of our avenues and the issue is closed.”

“We live in a very highly regulated, no-growth environment,” he added. “And this is part of the contemporary political culture. If you own a piece of property in the county, you don’t really own it. You own the right to ask other citizens if you can do what you’d like to do with your property. A very small vocal minority can defeat any project regardless of how intentioned it is.”

 

Budget news

In other news, the city council passed its budget, which shows a $245,450 reduction for Parks and Recreation, and a slight increase in gas tax revenue, $408,000 in 2009-10, as well as a big 75.5 percent increase in its Local Transportation Fund.

City officials said they were not alarmed, as some other cities are, by the state’s fiscal problems.

With the passage of Prop. 1A in 2004, the state could potentially take some local property tax revenue, although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would oppose this action.

Finance Director, Kathy Wollin said the city is becoming a smaller, more efficient organization and expects to weather the economic climate.

“It would have to get really dire to affect us,” she said. “We have enough reserves to get through this.”

Reach Jeremy Foster at jfoster@syvjournal.com.