A local developer is on track to build more than a dozen two-story homes on a 3-acre tract in Lompoc, despite the proposal’s deviations from some city standards.
Currently covered by dirt and weeds, the project site is an undeveloped parcel on the southeast corner of North V Street and West North Avenue. The planned residential development was approved by the Lompoc Planning Commission during a public hearing on Feb. 14.
Of the project’s 18 proposed single-family homes, two will be dedicated to low-income housing, according to the staff report, which makes the development—known as La Purisima Court—eligible for a state density bonus.
As an incentive, the bonus grants some exemptions from city and county policies. In La Purisima Court’s case, for example, the average area of the proposed houses is 2,700 square feet per lot, although Lompoc’s zoning code would usually require each of these units to have a minimum lot size of 7,000 square feet.
Before votes were cast, Planning Commissioner Steve Bridge asked staff if the development would still benefit from certain code exemptions if the project owner—a Solvang-based LLC known as 930 North V.—decided to pay in lieu fees to the city rather than offer low-income housing.
Planning Manager Brian Halvorson said that although Lompoc’s inclusionary housing ordinance grants the in lieu fee option, “that’s not on the table this evening.”
“Right now, there has been no request for in lieu fees, therefore they would have to build [low-income units],” Halvorson said at the Planning Commission’s Feb. 14 meeting.
Lompoc Assistant City Attorney Brian Wright-Bushman clarified that the project would need to be reformatted to comply with city standards if its developer took the in lieu fee route. In that case, the project wouldn’t be eligible for the state density bonus.
“They have to build them if they want this project as it’s designed,” Wright-Bushman said. “If they decided they didn’t want to build them and wanted to pay in lieu fees, then it wouldn’t just be coming back [to the Planning Commission] for that change. They would have to redesign their whole project.”
Erik Vasquez, one of the project’s co-owners, spoke during public comment and said he wasn’t aware the in lieu fee option was a potential path to consider prior to the Feb. 14 meeting.
The Lompoc Planning Commission ultimately approved the La Purisima Court project with a 3-0 vote. Planning Commissioner Chris Braxton was absent.
