With the aim of completing 15 projects in a two-year time frame, the city of Solvang is recruiting additional staff members, including a management analyst. At least half of the hiree’s workload will be dedicated to helping resolve issues the City Council decided to prioritize for the 2024-26 budget.
Traffic congestion, code enforcement, and water infrastructure were among the issues raised at a recent community workshop, Solvang’s special advisor, Rod Wood, said during the City Council’s April 8 meeting. City staff compiled feedback from both the public and city officials and summarized various issues within a ranked list of 33 goals.
Wood asked the City Council to examine the list’s top 15 goals and consider modifying or removing them, before staff begins further assessments on the 2024-26 budget.
“The good news is you have enough staff resources over the [next] two years to complete the 15 top priority goals, perhaps some others as well on the list,” Wood said, referring to both current staff and the upcoming management analyst. “At the end of the two years, you’ll actually have these done. This isn’t a wish list. If you say you want it done, we’ve committed to it.”
Wood said some of the proposed projects are based on issues that have lingered for years. The first project on the list—inspired by community suggestions and ranked in order of a scoring system that weighed individual City Council members’ ratings—is to analyze parking improvement opportunities to relieve Solvang’s parking congestion.
City staff estimates that the parking study alone would cost $55,000 to fund a consultant or other support outside of its staff members.
“Staff availability won’t be a concern,” Wood said. “The real issue is the dollars necessary for some of the outside resources [and] consultants.”
There’s another traffic-related study on the goal list with a higher price tag, though. The project, ranked seventh on the priority scale, is described as “assess opportunities and financing to improve traffic, pedestrian, and bicycle circulation in general and especially on State Route 246,” according to the staff report.
Excluding staff time and construction fees of any future finalized project, staff estimates the study will cost about $862,000. Wood referred to this proposed study as “the big boogeyman.”
“That’s probably the most complicated issue on here, and the only thing you can actually do is analyze the multiple options you have,” said Wood, who described Solvang’s unregulated crosswalks as one of the clear problems that causes traffic congestion.
Shortly before the City Council directed staff to accept the top 15 priorities as presented, Wood recommended that the City Council combine the 15th ranked project with the 16th, as elements from the pair overlap with one another. The remaining goals in the total 33 will carry over as proposed projects in future budgets.
The 15th city goal is to “assess regional opportunities on use and development of water infrastructure,” while the 16th is to “analyze feasibility to reuse wastewater either as reclaimed wastewater, enhanced treatment for well injection, or as direct potable water.”
“The state of California has quite a bit of money set aside if you’re willing to treat your sewer to the point where you can put it back in the water pipe, convert it back to potable water,” Wood said. “[The state is] funding programs to actually use it as drinking water.”
“Most people aren’t comfortable with that thought,” Wood added with a laugh.
