Buellton reviews medical office plans for shuttered Parks Plaza theater

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Three palm trees are part of a developer’s digital rendering for a proposed medical facility set for the spot where Buellton ironically almost got its first In-N-Out.

Shuttered since 2020, the Parks Plaza movie theater was a city focal point in 2023 when the Buellton City Council overturned the Planning Commission’s decision to greenlight In-N-Out’s plan to transform the property into a new drive-through restaurant.

At the time, Parks Plaza co-owner Bob Gran Jr. told the council that it took two years for his family to coordinate the project with In-N-Out’s corporate office and feared that his property would remain idle if the development plans fell through. Gran said he worried that the project’s denial would discourage other businesses from proposing alternatives for the site in the future.

Less than two years after the council halted the In-N-Out project due to traffic congestion concerns, the Buellton Planning Commission held its first preliminary review for a proposed Cottage Health office at Gran’s site on McMurray Road.

“It’s consistent with the current buildings around there,” Planning Commissioner Kasey Kump said at the commission’s June 5 meeting. 

Buellton Associate Planner Cara Miralles told the commission that the Cottage Health project would include demolishing the site’s existing movie theater and developing a new three-story building.

While the site is in a zone with a building height limit of 35 feet, the proposed medical facility as planned is 43 feet tall. When commissioners questioned Miralles about the project’s height limits, she said that staff is recommending an exception because the project site slopes downward from its entrance that’s level with other buildings on McMurray Road.

According to the staff report, the proposed facility’s roofline is 35 feet above street level.

“The two floors that are at level with McMurray are within the height requirements of 35 feet,” Miralles said.

Kump said that the project essentially “meets the spirit of what the height requirements necessitate.” 

The proposed facility is also visually consistent with other multi-story structures that neighbor the site, including the adjacent three-story Marriott hotel, Miralles said. 

Future public hearings attached to the project will include a traffic and circulation study, according to the staff report.

Before the commission concluded its preliminary review, Planning Commissioner Brian Campbell asked staff if Cottage Health had expressed any plans to close its Buellton urgent care facility, also on McMurray Road, if this project moves forward. Staff said the applicant has not suggested that.

Campbell was relieved.

“It’s not always easy to get an appointment, so the added facilities are needed in this area,” he said.

This article appears in Jun 12-22, 2025.