The Solvang Chamber of Commerce urged the Solvang City Council to send a letter to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors disapproving of the county’s proposed ordinance that would legalize micro-kitchen operations.
During the April 26 council meeting, Chamber Executive Director Tracy Beard said the Chamber is adamantly against micro-kitchens, citing the health and safety of the Solvang community.
The Chamber provided the council with a report on the impacts of micro-kitchens on neighborhoods, infrastructure concerns, regulatory concerns, and health and safety code concerns.
The county’s ordinance would permit kitchen chefs to “store, handle, and prepare a limited number of meals (no more than 30 individual meals per day) for direct sale to consumers.”
Beard told the council that micro-kitchens would impact gated communities. She said if a resident in Skytt Mesa, for example, were to operate a kitchen in their backyard that generates $50,000 in sales, there would be about 30 to 60 cars coming in to buy food such as fried chicken, ribs, burgers, or gourmet steak dinners.
“We need to stop the nonsense right now within this. We have better ways of helping entrepreneurs in restaurants working with WEV, Women’s Economic Ventures, our local colleges Santa Barbara City College and Allan Hancock. We have commercial kitchens all over Santa Barbara County right now that are unused,” Beard said.
Beard said several times that the Chamber’s opposition had nothing to do with concerns over competition between local restaurants and the micro-kitchens. Coucilmember Robert Clarke said even though the Chamber didn’t want to mention the competition, he would.
“Somebody puts their life, their heart, and soul into their family business and running a restaurant or something like that. They do everything by the book and then somebody can sell food out of their house. I just don’t think it’s fair to people that have existing businesses here in Solvang now, especially in COVID when we’re all trying to support every different restaurant every week,” Clarke said. “I just dont think this is appropriate for a small town like Solvang.”
The entire council agreed. However, Councilmember Claudia Orona wondered whether the council could establish a local ordinance that would limit the number of micro-kitchen permits in the area.
“Many entrepreneurs would appreciate the opportunity to be able to have a startup, people that do not have the access to the capital to open a restaurant for whatever given reason,” Orona said.
Ultimately the council unanimously moved to send an opposition letter to the county Board of Supervisors.
Solvang joins Santa Maria in voicing opposition to micro-kitchens. The county Board of Supervisors is currently conducting outreach with business communities, local chambers, and local city governments before reaching a decision.
This article appears in May 6-13, 2021.