The Bodger Meadows housing project near Lompoc has bounced between city and county staff for the past two and a half years, but the city’s been trying to obtain the property from the county for decades.
After the City Council discussed the project’s latest news, Mayor Jim Mosby joked dryly about the saga. He referenced a sewer line that was installed along Bailey Avenue intended to serve the area’s future developments.
“Woo,” Mosby cheered around 11 p.m. near the end of the council’s July 7 meeting. “Sixty-five years in the making, like a big old Timex.”
In August last year, Lompoc City Council members voted to move forward with the project, which will eventually need a green light from the county and the Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The county recently started its environmental review process.
If the project continues to progress, around 200 single-family homes and 140 apartment units will be built on 45 acres of land off Olive Avenue. Another 40 acres of the Bodger Meadows property will remain agricultural but with some infrastructure upgrades.
From the city’s perspective, absorbing the parcel is the way to go. The move would bring around 270 acres into the city for residential development.
One major challenge for such annexation has been the reduction of agricultural land, but the city maintains that the lengthy timeline is typical for a project of this scope.
Bringing the land into the city will help with issues like the project’s drainage basin. It’s already been cause for pause—engineers redesigned it in recent submittals—and might prove to be a headache if the city can’t annex it.
“If it’s dual jurisdictional, meaning if the basin is in the county and the development is in the city, it becomes a conflict,” Mosby said. “Let’s say for weed abatement or other levels of mitigation.”
Another change Lompoc staff requested be considered by the county includes an access point at Ocean Avenue. The street marks the project’s northern border, and adding another exit could reduce traffic at Miguelito Elementary School, located to the south on Olive Avenue.
“There’s a lot of concern raised by the school and community that having one of the main accesses on Olive conflicts with the school activities that are happening right across the street,” Contract Planner Laurie Tamura explained at the meeting.
More progress came as the city compiled letters from various departments for the county’s review. For example, the Community Development Department advocated for additional pedestrian access, the Fire Department wrote that a second access road should be added to West Ocean, and the Solid Waste Division outlined traffic circulation for its collection trucks.
“We are at the table with the county,” Tamura said. “We are also at the table with LAFCO because this environmental document will be used for subsequent decisions … for pre-zoning and annexation to the city or an outside uses agreement.”
After the environmental review is completed, county planning commissioners will discuss a potential approval of the project next year before handing it off to the Board of Supervisors. Then the city can attempt the annexation process with LAFCO.
This article appears in July 16 – July 23, 2026.
