Major regional shopping center planned in Santa Maria

A proposal to relocate Costco and add a Lowe’s, restaurants, retail shops, offices, apartments and more on 113 acres near Betteravia Road and Highway 101 in Santa Maria will go before the Santa Maria City Council in March.

The huge Enos Ranchos development — proposed by San Luis Obispo-based developer Nick Tompkins of NKT Commercial — was approved Wednesday by the Santa Maria Planning Commission.

Commissioners voted 4-0 to recommend the City Council approve the draft supplemental environmental impact report, the Enos Ranchos Specific Plan and other matters for the development in the first of many approvals required for the project.

Chairwoman Maribel Hernandez did not participate in the discussion or votes because of a potential conflict of interest.

In all, the commercial space would add up to 517,500 square feet on 58 acres.

Auto dealerships would include a mixture of relocations from other sites in the city and newcomers to Santa Maria.

“It’s the largest development that we’ve seen in years in the city,” Community Developer Director Larry Appel said after the meeting.

Previous projects proposed for the site snagged as other developers tried and failed to purchase the land over the years.

Initially submitted in 2008, the now-revised Enos Ranchos project has a new look and a fast track. Tompkins hopes to start construction on public improvements as soon as June and begin work on buildings six months later.

“Generally, we feel really good, and also candidly we are really appreciative for all the work the city’s done to help accommodate this on a really kind of a break-neck schedule,” Tompkins said after clearing one of many hurdles en route to breaking ground.

The City Council will consider the project in early March, and the Planning Commission will handle specific permits in mid- to late March.

Specifically, Enos Ranchos calls for a new home for Costco along with a gas station, which the company doesn’t have in Santa Maria, a Lowe’s home improvement store, a number of other retail shops, drive-thru restaurants, bank and eateries.

“At this point, we can’t disclose who the tenants are, but there are a number of tenants not already in the city,” Planning Division Manager Peter Gilli said.

Bradley Road will be realigned and College Drive will be widened to accommodate the project while an elementary school, apartments and park also are planned for the 113-acre site.

The historic Enos home at the site would be relocated to the proposed park, where one speaker suggested it should become a local agricultural history museum.

Deeming the project as a “front door” for shoppers, planning staff said extra focus centered on landscaping in the parking lots and along frontages of the regional shopping center. The center also would feature a contemporary design.

“This is a very big project, it’s a major entrance to the city,” Gilli said, adding staff contends the location near the highway will make all the businesses successful, giving the city increased sales tax and property tax revenues.

Developers expressed concerns about the heavy requirements for trees in the parking lots, and the auto dealerships objected to a requirement that trees along major streets have large canopies, contending those would block the lots from the views of passing motorists.

“It’s just not what dealerships are doing now,” the developer’s consultant Laurie Tamura of Urban Planning Concepts said, adding auto dealerships prefer clear views of lots.

She displayed a photo of high-end dealerships, including one in Santa Barbara, with clear views of the lots from the freeway.

Commissioners tackled various areas of disagreement between the city staff and developers individually, agreeing to recommend easing some requirements while other matters will be settled during the planned development permit process.

Tompkins, who grew up in Casmalia in Santa Barbara County and went to parochial schools in Santa Maria, said he is excited to make sure the final project is unique.

“But there are constraints, and we’re bound by obvious fiscal realities of the world, so there’s some give and take we have worked through with the city,” he said.

With additional give and take, he added, he hopes the final project would “make a solid impact for the city and make the gateway, the doorstep ... something that everyone can be proud of.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Major regional shopping center planned in Santa Maria."