The fallout from Monterey County’s battery plant fire in January continues to take on new forms, legislatively speaking, across the state. About 170 miles from the site of the incident in Moss Landing, Santa Maria is drafting regulations on battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities for the first time.
A proposed ordinance, which would restrict future BESS development proposals to specific industrial areas, among other limitations, is heading for a Santa Maria City Council hearing with a recent recommendation from the Santa Maria Planning Commission.
“The purpose is to get in front of this, put something in place to give us control when things do come forward,” Assistant City Attorney Heather Whitham told the Planning Commission at its March 19 meeting.
City staff introduced the ordinance with fewer restrictions than Commissioner Robert Dickerson’s motion pushed forward, approved after a 4-0 vote (Commissioner Tom Lopez was absent).
Partly inspired by comments from commissioners Yasameen Mohajer and Tim Seifert, Dickerson included some amendments to staff’s ordinance in his motion that narrowed down future potential developers’ options nearly to the point of “a de facto moratorium,” he said.
For example, staff’s original ordinance defined residential neighborhoods, hospitals, and schools as sensitive sites with certain parameter protections from BESS developments. The Planning Commission’s recommendation includes agricultural land, whether it’s cultivated or fallow, as an additional sensitive area.
“There’s very, very few spaces that might fit within the parameters that we’ve discussed. … A de facto moratorium would take place because there wouldn’t be any place you could actually fit the thing in?” Dickerson asked staff at the meeting.
“I can’t say definitely that it would eliminate every opportunity, but pretty close,” City Planner Frank Albro said.
Dickerson also asked staff about whether simply recommending a literal moratorium on BESS facilities to the City Council was feasible for the Planning Commission.
“You can only do a moratorium when you have an application pending and you’re concerned that your zoning code doesn’t fully address and protect the city from whatever use is being proposed, and you need time to put the brakes on,” Assistant City Attorney Whitham said. “We don’t currently have an application pending, so that could be difficult to address.”
As part of the Planning Commission’s recommendation, Dickerson added a contingency plan to address future BESS development applications.
In his motion, Dickerson explained that if a potential BESS developer happens “to figure out a way” to apply for a project within the ordinance’s tight restrictions, that application should “trigger” staff to notify the City Council and look into “possibly creating a moratorium.”
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 6, 2025.
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