During its first public hearing of 2023, the Solvang Planning Commission greenlit a local health care company’s pitch to bring a new medical clinic to town.
Based in Santa Barbara, Sansum Clinic plans to construct one of its next locations—a two-story, 34,318-square-foot facility—on Windmill Lane in Solvang. The project will include a cancer treatment center and other specialty clinics, and was brought before the Planning Commission at its Feb. 6 meeting.
“It’s a nice project and it’s going to be well used I’m sure, unfortunately,” Planning Commissioner Joannie Jamieson said, after Sansum Clinic’s proposal was approved with a 4-0 vote.
Planning Commissioner Aaron Petersen abstained from voting, as he cited a conflict of interest—living within 300 feet of the project site’s address—before planning consultant Laurie Tamura’s summary of the project.
“I will remove myself and be cold out in the lobby,” Petersen said while getting up to leave.
“Take your jacket,” Planning Commissioner Jack Williams told Petersen.
After Tamura’s presentation, newly appointed Planning Commissioner Kief Adler expressed support for the project and described the proposed clinic, referring to the Sansum Cancer Medical Clinic, as “an asset for the community.”
Planning Commissioner Justin Rodriguez raised one initial concern about the project’s proposed architectural design, which incorporates “a simplified Spanish Mission style,” according to the staff report.
“This is a pretty big building. When you’re coming into town, it’ll be a significant thing that you see, and it’s not Danish in architectural appearance,” Rodriguez said.
Tamura explained that the Spanish Mission style design was chosen to make the building feel consistent with adjacent commercial buildings that share the same design, so there won’t be “a shocking difference between that and what’s already there,” the consultant said.
The project site is located near the east entrance of Solvang, an area that has taken on “Mission and Ranch style architecture to provide tourists a different sense of arrival compared to the Northern European/Danish architecture in the Village District at Alisal Road,” according to the staff report.
“It’s really important to think about them as two different areas,” said Tamura, who added that Solvang’s Design Review Committee reviewed the project in detail and is recommending its approval.
Planning manager Sophia Checa added that the Solvang General Plan’s Community Design Element “also clarifies this distinction between the village area that’s clearly very Old World Danish, and the rest of the city.”
The project’s architect, Brian Cearnal, spoke on behalf of Sansum Clinic at the meeting, shortly before the proposal and its design were approved 4-0.
“We’ve worked hard on this to make it fit in,” Cearnal said. “This is a very important project for Sansum.”
This article appears in Feb 9-16, 2023.