How many times has the city of Lompoc been denied by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) of Santa Barbara County?
I’m not sure, but the city’s efforts to annex some of the land near Bailey Avenue out of the county have met with roadblock after roadblock.
For a quarter of a century, the city has been attempting to expand its boundaries with minimal success—it got 10 acres in 2016 for a small housing development.
In 2010, as part of its general plan, the city approved expanding Bailey, rezoning 270 acres of land from agriculture to urbanized development, and constructing 2,700 homes and 200,000 square feet of commercial space. The Environmental Defense Center sued Lompoc for its forward-thinking expansion plans on behalf of the Santa Barbara County Action Network (SBCAN).
Really, the acronym should be SBCAN’T.
In 2018, the city submitted an annexation application to LAFCO for 148 acres along Bailey Avenue. No dice. In 2023, LAFCO denied it.
The Environmental Defense Center on behalf of SBCAN suggested the city look for potential infill development opportunities instead of sprawling.
“It’s important to reduce sprawl and promote development within the city’s existing boundaries,” attorney Maggie Hall said at the time. “This has been going on for a long time; the city of Lompoc has been trying to expand in this direction and annex, bring these properties within the city’s jurisdiction with the goal to provide residential development and convert ag land.”
What other kind of land would Lompoc be annexing? It’s surrounded by agriculture, a prison, and a space base. Besides, the city isn’t looking for high-density housing projects; it’s looking for medium- to low-density—so infill won’t work, then City Manager Dean Albro said in 2023.
Now, Lompoc’s trying again, with a new city manager and a specific development on the docket, one that would build 200 homes and 140 apartments on 58 acres of what’s now county ag land with 20 percent of the units restricted for low-income families.
“We know we need the housing, and we need to get it done,” Mayor Jim Mosby said about the project at the Aug. 19 meeting, asking staff to come up with “creative ways” to get it approved.
He was on the council during previous annexation attempts and likened the county to an alien wrapped around Lompoc’s neck wanting the city to die.
This time, the city might have a little more breathing room, thanks to moves the state’s made to NIMBY-proof badly needed housing development projects. The ol’ ag land shouldn’t be developed argument might not fly in the face of Builder’s Remedy, which the project used in its application thanks to the county’s inability to comply with the state-imposed deadline on its plan to meet regional housing needs.
The county eventually filed its plan, but the gap enabled projects submitted during the county’s noncompliance period not to follow certain zoning rules if those developments allocated a certain percentage of their units to affordable housing.
Builder’s Remedy is confusing, and the county’s already been sued over the way it dealt with a separate housing development application filed under the zoning loophole (Richards Ranch).
So maybe Lompoc will get lucky, the county will cave, and SBCAN won’t get its way.
The Canary can’t right now. Send positivity to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 7, 2025.