Following the success of its first town hall meeting last October, the city of Santa Maria is holding another meeting on March 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Christian Family Church of God. This meeting will focus on the city’s northeast neighborhoods.
City spokesman Mark van de Kamp called the meeting a hybrid of presentations from city staffers and a public comment period so locals can express their concerns about the northeast community, which is bordered by Broadway to the west, Fesler to the south, and the Santa Maria riverbed to the northeast.
“The meeting we did back in October on the northwest [neighborhoods] was meant to address some violent crimes—violent shootings—that had occurred,” van de Kamp said. “The northeast neighborhood is different. There is crime, but we’re not planning to have a presentation from the chief.”
At the meeting on March 26, residents will get an update on the progress of the northwest community action plan and then discuss the creation of a similar plan for the northeast neighborhood.
The city manager, police chief, code compliance officers, and other city staff members will be present at the meeting, which will be conducted in both English and Spanish.
Van de Kamp said the process will be similar to that of the northwest meeting; after all of the public’s concerns are compiled in a list, everyone will be asked to mark with “sticky dots” the issues that are most important to them. Those issues will be the main focus of the northeast community action plan.
The process has proven successful for the northwest neighborhoods. In response to the meeting and subsequent action plan, the city has conducted prostitution stings, started a door-to-door code compliance program, and purchased new playground equipment for Oakley Park, among other things.
Christian Family Church of God is at 324 N. Suey Road in Santa Maria.
This article appears in Mar 21-28, 2013.