A recent hearing to consider a Buellton developer’s request for a one-year extension on a city-approved project escalated into a debate on flood safety.
While the Buellton Hub project—a mixed-use plaza of residential apartments, business offices, and recreation areas planned for a 17-acre site on Industrial Way, adjacent to a portion of Zaca Creek—was greenlit by the city in 2018, a former city official argued for a complete reassessment in light of the January 2023 storm.
“There’s a huge potential here for flooding and loss of life,” Buellton resident and former City Councilmember John Dorwin said during public comment at the Buellton City Council’s Sept. 28 meeting. “I urge you to deny the extension and require full analysis of the hydrology of Zaca Creek because the proposal is to put people in residences on this site, and that is going to create a known dangerous condition.”
Dorwin also spoke in opposition to the project in August before members of the Buellton Planning Commission, who recommended that the City Council approve the requested extension on the project’s tentative tract map, previously set to expire in July.
At the Planning Commission’s Aug. 24 meeting, Dorwin argued that the Jan. 9 storm should count “as a trigger event under CEQA” (the California Environmental Quality Act) and that Buellton should be required “to go back and review all of the thresholds for environmental review relating to Zaca Creek flood control, the floodway, and this proposed residential use adjacent to the Zaca Creek floodway.”
But the Planning Commission ultimately sided with staff’s finding that there’s no need for subsequent environmental review. During the City Council’s Sept. 28 meeting, Dorwin argued that “the original environmental review did not address the hydrology of Zaca Creek at all; it was completely omitted from any review.”
“It has to be studied, it has to be mitigated, it has to be dealt with,” Dorwin said. “What is mitigation going to look like? Is mitigation going to be some boats to get people out of there if there’s a flood? Is it going to involve putting helipads on top of these residences so that you can get a helicopter in there and people on their roofs when they can’t traverse this area because of the flood flow?
“You have to think about the worst-case scenario in this situation,” Dorwin added. “We’ve all seen the pictures of what El Niño has done, what other climate change issues have done. You need to be proactive here and you need to think about the ultimate liability of the city.”
Gavin Moores, an agent on behalf of the Hub project’s owner, addressed Dorwin’s comments directly during his brief presentation on the time extension request at the Sept. 28 meeting.
“I applaud Mr. Dorwin’s presentation and his zeal and his efforts to throw everything he can to try and stop this project, but the reality is everything that we are doing complies with CEQA,” Moores said.
Later during the meeting, Buellton’s Public Works Director and City Engineer Rose Hess clarified that the hydrology of Zaca Creek was included in the project’s original environmental review, although the project is governed in name by the Santa Ynez River study, Hess said.
“Zaca Creek is a tributary to that,” Hess said. “That portion of the creek [adjacent to the Hub site] is not being overlooked. … It is the confluence of the Santa Ynez River, and that is automatically included.”
During the City Council’s deliberations, Mayor David King reminded his peers that they’ve been asked to consider a time extension for the project’s tract map, and that the Hub’s developer still has “many hoops to be jumped through before this project even scrapes the ground.”
The Buellton City Council ultimately approved the extension with a 4-0 vote. Councilmember Hudson Hornick recused from voting due to living near the project site.
This article appears in Oct 5-15, 2023.