The Solvang City Council took a first step toward a more streamlined sign ordinance after a recommendation from Planning and Building Director Rafael Castillo in the Tuesday, Nov. 12, meeting.

The council held a rare Tuesday meeting on Nov. 12, which was done because the second Monday in the month, when council usually meets, was Veterans Day. Councilmember Elizabeth Orona was absent from the meeting.

During the meeting, the present councilmembers acknowledged Mayor Pro Tem David Brown’s victory in the previous week’s mayoral election. Although the election has not yet been certified, the second post-election update released last Thursday saw Brown getting 58.99% of the vote, with runner-up Jamie Baker getting 26.43%, and Denise El Amin 13.97% to finish third.

Meanwhile, Mark Infanti, who did not seek reelection as mayor, ran unopposed for the District 1 seat and got 96.78% of the vote, while fellow councilmember Claudia Orono ran unopposed for the District 2 seat, getting 96.43% of the vote.

In his presentation for the item Discussion and Possible Action to Provide Staff Direction regarding Updates to Solvang Sign Ordinances, Castillo explained how the sign ordinance was passed in 1990 to keep the town’s architectural character, with the thought to revise it every few years. However, recent revision attempts in 2018 (city officials didn’t bother to put the changes before the council) and 2019 (COVID) weren’t put in.

City staff actually temporarily relaxed signage regulations, particularly A-frame signs and other types of signage during2020 through 2022.

Under current policy, sign placement, whether a new sign, replacement sign, etc. requires approval from the Design Review Committee (DRC). While the sign ordinance is comprehensive, there are times where the ordinance is left up to interpretation, and the ordinance is sometimes in conflict with itself. 

Castillo pointed that one streamlining attempt has submitted signs just going on the Consent Agenda, which tends to pass without much analysis. Another problem Castillo pointed out is the time the process takes and the cost.

“I’m looking for direction on an action to begin revising this,” Castillo said. “I also think this is where the DRC is essential. They know about the ‘brand’ of Solvang, and what we’re trying to maintain.”

One person spoke out on public comment on the issue: Local business owner Aaron Petersen.

“I’m the only person speaking here, but there’s a lot more people I could be speaking for tonight,” Petersen said. “We’re concerned about the sign ordinance. When you’re trying to get a sign permitted, you need to understand the DRC only meets once a month, you submit a sign and they suddenly say ‘oh, something’s wrong with the color,’ sometimes that can push you to 90 days, and you’re still waiting.”

Peterson liked the idea of having a workshop.

“We need people to get together; we need people involved,” he said.

The councilmembers were all in agreement that a workshop under the DRC would be a good idea, although Councilmember Robert Clarke admitted he was just joking when he suggested. However, Infanti and Orona thought it was a good idea, and Brown suggested they try and develop visual examples of correct styles so it would be easier for people to understand what the city wants.

At the end, the council directed Castillo and staff to hold a workshop at the DRC level, but that it would in spring at the earliest.

In other business:

The council voted to approve a request by its transit system manager, RATPDev, for changes in their transit contract. While the changes would cost more money, Public Works Director Rodger Olds pointed out that the transit system is paid for by state and federal funds, so it would not cost the city any money.

With Brown imminent move to the mayor’s seat, Randy Murphy began the discussion on how to fill his vacant District 3 seat. It was quickly decided a replacement would be appointed since a special election would be costly, and, as City Counsel Chelsea O’Sullivan pointed out, the election could not be held until the next general election, which in 2025 would be November.

Murphy said they would start ‘putting out a net’ for candidates right away, while Infanti said the new mayor and councilmembers would probably be sworn in during the next council meeting on Dec. 9.

Feature Image: Solvang business owner Aaron Petersen makes his comments about the city’s sign ordinance during the City Council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Screenshot from Yahoo.

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After working side-by-side to govern the City of Buellton incumbent Mayor Dave King and Vice Mayor David Silva will run against each other for the city’s mayoral seat in the Nov. 5 election.

King was elected as Buellton’s second-ever mayor in 2022 after Holly Sierra termed out. That same year, Silva threw his hat in the ring and won the District 4 City Council seat as the council was transitioning into district representation.

No matter who wins the mayor’s race, the Buellton City Council will not look that much different. King and Silva are the only competitive race on City Council as Elysia Lewis and John Sanchez, whose terms will expire for the city’s last two at-large seats, happen to live in the districts that are open, but both will be running unopposed, Lewis in District 2 and Sanchez in District 3.

Dave King

King said he feels like there were some things accomplished during his first term, but there are also things he still wants to do, and he wants to be in the mayor’s seat for them.

“There are many things we’re still pursing as a city, and I’ve found during my time in the City Council and in the last two years as mayor, that I can get a lot more done when I’m mayor,” he said. “So, I just want to stay on this job and get more stuff done.”

One of the big topics in Buellton was, and still is, traffic along Highway 246, which is the main road through town, and that’s a topic King, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, feels strongly about. The city, however, has been able to reach agreement with the CHP to station some CHP officers in town to cut down on speeding. There’s also progress on narrowing the lanes on Highway 246 to control traffic on the east end of town.

“This is good because if we can get those lanes narrowed on the way out of, or into, town,” King said. “When people come upon a lane narrowing, they tend to slow down.”

King is also seeing signs of progress in capital projects.

“We’ve had the Waypoint bowling alley in the plans, and I’m hoping we can get that started in 6-8 months,” he said. “Also, the old movie theater was purchased and I’d like to talk to the owner about reopening.”

Those two projects are examples of what King wants for Buellton: More things to do for kids and families.

“I’d like to get some progress going on finding land for a baseball and soccer fields,” he said. “Good athletics facilities can brings in traveling teams for tournaments and the like, and bring more money into town.”

King has also touted the development of affordable housing to meet the state mandates, but worries that much of the housing demanded by the state may be incongruous with Buellton.

“I think affordable housing is a good and necessary idea — if it’s done right,” King said, and then referencing the housing complex in progress behind the Albertson’s “For instance [that complex] has apartments that will require way more parking than it has room for and it’s going to increase density and congestion.

“The state’s push for housing has unintended consequences when they try to forces construction in where it doesn’t fit.”

David Silva

For current Vice Mayor David Silva, the catalyst to pursue a run for the Buellton mayor’s seat came in the threat of Buellton’s Meals on Wheels program being taken away earlier this year.

“See the possibility that could happen really got my attention. Over 400 seniors depend on that and it was very possible it could go insolvent,” he said. “And I just thought of my mother-in-law, who is a senior and has dementia, and what if someone just pulled away the resources she has?”

The City Council and Santa Ynez Valley Outreach were able to keep the program afloat, but it gave Silva some thought.

“I thought to myself ‘we never should have let it get that close to being eliminated,'” he said. “We need to be proactively thinking of what the community needs, instead of being reactive, and I thought I would need to take the lead in that; and that’s what made me decide to run for mayor.”

During his time on City Council, Silva has claimed many accomplishments in addition to help keeping the Meal on Wheels rolling, such as funding a record number of inaugural community arts and cultural heritage events, securing funding for the Santa Ynez River Trail, investing in the library, and working to renew and preserve the city’s Urban Growth Boundary while providing thoughtful sites for future housing.

The Urban Growth Boundary is another important subject in the form of Measure C on the November ballot, which would extend the life of the UGB, and add 123 acres to it.

“I’m definitely for that, although it’s up to the voters whether it’s implemented,” Silva said. “We’re running out of space, so I think we can be proactive to add a small bit of land to the north.”

An additional goal he has is to balance the draw of tourists with local needs.

“I fell there’s a need to welcome the tourists, but with an investment and benefit to the locals,” Silva said. “That means creating things that both tourists and locals can enjoy, like splash pads and playground equipment.”

One last goal Silva has for this campaign is getting citizens more involved in the city.

“In campaigning I’m going door-to-door and have gotten some great ideas from people,” he said. “But I’ve also found a lot of people aren’t really engaged in the community.

“As an elected official, I feel I have to take on the responsibility of meeting this people and making them engaged.” 

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Two years ago, Solvang’s mayoral race was a foregone conclusion, what with Mark Infanti being the only person to run for the office. Now, after a two-year term, Infanti has decided not to seek another term and instead put in his papers for the 1st District City Council seat, where he will run unopposed.

With that, three candidates have emerged to seek that seat for a two-year term. They are local business owner Jamie Baker, current Mayor Pro Tem Dave Brown, and County Behavorial Wellness Commission member Denise El-Amin (Candidate sections are organized in alphabetical order by last name).

Jamie Baker

Local author and business owner Jamie Baker is known by many in Solvang as the proprietor of the Space VR virtual reality lounge on Alisal Road, but he had designs and running for public back in 2020 before a bad diagnosis sent that off track.

“About four years ago, I was asked to run when we had some turmoil on the council,” Baker said. “So I threw my hat in the ring for City Council, and then two weeks later I found out I had cancer.” 

“I went and had coffee with the other candidate who was trying to bring stability, and he was a perfectly fine candidate so I backed off.”

Despite dropping out of the race to concentrate on his treatment, Baker was able to pick up some votes.

“I still got 800 votes because every kid has been at my business, and I’ve worked with a lot of schools for educational and field trips,” he said. “Then COVID hit and it cut down on business, so I started writing novels while the pandemic was going on.”

But now, with the cancer and pandemic behind him, Baker was asked to run again, this time for the mayor’s seat. He would like to help make Solvang a town that doesn’t have to rely so much on tourism

“I think Solvang is fine, but our expenses climb as our revenue goes flat,” he said. “And our choices of dealing with that are slim: raise taxes or cut expenses. And, I think right now our economy is based on tourism; in fact, right now it seems to be based on hotel stays and alcohol.”

Baker thinks there are other streams of revenue the city can tap.

“I’m talking about, you know, arts and culture, recreation,” he said. “All these things will generate people coming and staying as opposed to driving by, stopping, and moving on.”

Before moving to Solvang in 2014, Baker had some experience with LA County recommending recipients for grants.

“We had $100 million worth of Prop 12 funds dispersed between the Parks and Rec department,” he said. “So I was pretty much entrenched in that, working with the county supervisors and attending my share of government meetings.

“I think we just need to find ways to diversify our revenue, because I think we have the opportunity. And, the potential infrastructure for that to happen is already here; it just needs to be reengaged.”

David Brown

Having been elected in 2022 as one of the first two district-based City Councilmembers in Solvang, and serving as Mayor Pro Tem during this term, Brown has been a notable presence in council chambers.

“When Mark [Infanti] decided not to run for reelection, I decided to run to keep the continuity there,” said Brown, who’s also a licensed mortgage lender and business owner. “I think the council’s been running well the last two years, and with me — I’ve been mayor pro tem for the last two years, I can just take the seat and go. I won’t need any practice, I won’t need any warmup.”

Being a business owner himself, Brown wants to start making it easier for businesses in Solvang.

“I want to improve and update the building codes, and make them more transparent,” he said. “I heard so many times of business put up a sign, or something else on the building and be told it’s against code. Then they’re saying ‘why didn’t you tell me that before.”

“We should institute a pallette of colors and kinds of signage where we could tell owners ‘these are your options’ and they pick from those,” he said. “And I want to keep the ordinances specific. Like the outdoor dining with the Copenhagen Drive restaurants. I don’t want to see a rule that pertains to a business on Copenhagen, but it doesn’t apply to one on Mission, for instance.”

Another idea Brown has is to step up job training and volunteer opportunities.

“I’d like to see the city sponsor some kind of apprenticeship program,” he said. “It can be a different person for each shop and storefront, learning things like stocking goods and point-of-sale skills. After they’re done they have retail skills and can work anywhere.”

Brown also likes the idea of a volunteer brigade.

“We could have people with buttons or stickers saying ‘Ask Me Anything’ and answer any questions about the down,” he said. “Or they could give directions to a certain place or shop, or manage the crosswalks on Mission, which can get hairy with the heavy traffic.”

In general, Brown just wants to keep the town a desirable one for tourists and residents alike.

“Solvang had a brand, just like Disney or McDonald’s,” he said. “I want to protect that brand and keep it a desirable place to come to.”

For more on David Brown’s campaign, go to www.solvangmayor.com

Denise El-Amin

Denise El-Amin, who serves as an appointee, on the county’s Wellness Behavior Commission, is no stranger to Santa Ynez Valley ballots.

“I ran for City Council in 2016, but didn’t get it,” El-Amin said. “Ever since, in every election cycle, I make it a point to exercise my right to run for office.”

And this year, El-Amin will be vying for the mayor’s seat.

“Well, we have district elections now and I would have run, but the current mayor, Frank Infanti, is dropping down to the District 1, which is my district,” she said. “So I decided to run for mayor, because that’s the only way for me to get on council, because if the mayor pro tem wins, they’ll appoint someone and I won’t get in because it’s not my district.”

It’s a setup that El-Amin called an “unfair advantage. And if I can win mayor, I take that away.”

It’s El-Amin’s aim to add a different voice to City Council.

“I’m running for unity for the community. I want to show that we all have the right to run and voice our opinions,” said El-Amin, who has done just that in Public Comment at a few City Council meeting this year.

“Real estate is extremely expensive. Government has changed the laws and you have to follow the laws, especially with the high-density, and if elected I’ll make sure we follow these laws.”

Another big issue has got with the city are the water bills

“Our water bills are the highest in the valley; we’re drinking the same water, why are we paying more?” she said, and she also had a problem with an ordinance change the council on July 9. “They changed a law so that the bills are in the landlords’ name and tenants are being behind in payments the city can put a lien on the property, and I think that’s wrong.”

And finally, El-Amin thinks the city needs to keep the younger residents in town.

“We can’t last here with the aging population, we need new young entrepreneurs,” she said. “We need to keep the kids here. We give so much money to marketing firms; why don’t we funnel some of that to internships to give them a reason to stay.”

Ultimately, El-Amin wants to be the candidate for those who want to shakes things up a bit.

“Solvang needs to change,” she said. “A lot of people here may not want to change, but I represent change.”

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Members of the Stuart C. Gildred Family YMCA in Santa Ynez will have to wait a little longer to find out if they’ll be able to use the facility’s exercise room 24/7, while the neighbors who appealed the proposal will have to wait if the proposal will be denied.

The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission heard the item, Harwood Appeal of Channel Islands YMCA Alterations to Hours, at its Wednesday, Aug. 26, meeting.

The YMCA had requested an amendment to its Conditional Use Permit that would allow its members to access its excercise room open 24 hours a day, and it was approved by the Planning and Development Department in March 2023.

However, that decision was appealed by neighbors Deanna Harwood and Frank Betts, who live next door to each other on Calle Pico Court and have their backyards abutting the YMCA parking lot. Harwood and Betts oppose the 24-hour access because of noise and safety concerns, and the fact their would be no staff member on site during late hours.

That item was continued from the commission’s June 26 meeting when Commissioner John Parke, whose District 3 contains the YMCA, requested three conditions for him to approve the proposal. However, in the most recent meeting, one of the conditions, a working adaptive management plan, did not satisfy him.

The YMCA had agreed to Parke’s other two conditions: Keeping the north section of the parking lot, which is right by the back fences of Harwood’s and Betts’ homes, closed until 7 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m.; and providing a 24-hour phone number to contact a YMCA staff member if neighbors or YMCA members see a problem.

The YMCA also submitted an adaptive management plan chart, as well as a flowchart, but Parke did not find that sufficient.

“I really don’t understand this adaptive plan,” he said. “These plans I suggest are usually an if-then scenario; if something happens, then the county has a chance to modify or fix it.

“In this plan, there are a lot of internal reviews on there, but no steps where the county gets involved. We have ifs, but no thens. What I don’t want to see is incidents of trespassing and crime and no way to do anything about it.”

Fourth District Planning Commissioner Roy Reed agreed with Parke’s opinions on the AMP.

“In my experience in the medical field, we do things with algorithms, where it says ‘if that happens, you do this,'” Reed said, expanding on Parke’s ‘if-then’ argument. “I see some nice reporting procedures internally, and then you go to emergency protocols and it says they’re ‘to be reviewed’ instead of putting in acutal protocols.”

After that Betts, one of the appellants, had the floor and agreed about the AMP.

“I don’t believe it met the ask,” Betts said about the plan. “It looks to me more like a corporate project; where’s the transparency? How would the Y resolve that?”

Betts also had questions about the other two conditions.

“The phone number we’re supposed to call; is it going to some kind of YMCA call center or someone local,” he said. “Also, the parking lot still hasn’t been roped off until 7. Recently, they had some chemical truck in that area that was doing its work in the early hours, and it was loud.”

Channel Island YMCA Chief Operations Officer Jennifer Heinen-Stiffler addresses the three action items given to the organization for the proposal. She said the roping off of the parking lot areas will be done, and that the phone numbers will be shown and readily available inside and outside the building.

She also defended the effort on the AMP.

“The YMCA doesn’t have the background you expect from other industrial companies,” Heinen-Stiffler said. “We did our best.”

Parke, along with Reed and fellow Planning Commissioner Michael Cooney agreed that they would not vote to approve the hours expansion unless there was more work done on the AMP, and said they’d be willing to give another continuance so the YMCA could work with county staff on drafting a more effective plan.

Assistant Director of Planning & Development Jeff Wilson suggested a quick break so he could talk to the YMCA representatives and seek a new date to hear the item.

After the break, Wilson said the item could be continued to Oct. 30. However, Cooney said he would not be present on that date, but encouraged the rest of the commission to go forward with the item without him.

Parke said it would be better if the entire commission was able to discuss the item, so Wilson suggested Nov. 6, and a motion was made and unanimously approved for the continuance to that date.

Feature Image: A decision on the YMCA to allow 24-hour access to the Stuart C. Gildred Family YMCA exercise room will have to wait until Nov. 6. Photo by Mike Chaldu

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The ball got rolling on one part of the annual budget process for the Solvang City Council in their regular meeting April 22, as it heard grant requests from 13 organizations.

Mayor Mark Infanti made it clear the council would not take action on any of the requests, and a budget committee would decide which requests to OK at the Tuesday, May 28, meeting (postponed for one day because of the Memorial Day holiday).

After a request by Mayor Pro Tem Dave Brown during the consent calendar to flip-flop the two discussion items on the agenda, the council led off that part of the meeting with the individual presentations. Each had five minutes to state their case.

Thirteen groups delivered their presentations during the session. They were: Atterdag At Home ($20,000),

Bethania Tuesday Food Distribution ($15,000), Bethania Preschool ($10,000), Danish Days ($50,000), Nature Track ($5,000), Solvang Chamber of Commerce ($55,000), Solvang Senior Center ($70,000),

Solvang Elementary School Education Foundation ($10,000), Solvang Theaterfest ($100,000), Veggie Rescue ($15,000), SYV Therapeutic Riding Program ($10,000), Solvang Rotary/4th of July Parade ($9,500), and Viking Charities Inc. ($3,159).

Some of the potential grant recipients had presentations already submitted, while others just had a sheet of paper to read off. 

Some got creative, like Nature Track, an organization that aims to connect people to nature. One of their favorite features is a device called Freedom Trax, which allows wheelchair-bound people to move along the beach or across rough terrain by putting the wheelchair on top of the device. Eisaguirre brought the group’s program director, Abby Pickens, to demonstrate how it worked right there in council chambers.

Others, like Jody Williams, speaking on behalf of the Solvang Elementary School Education Foundation, was pointed out by Infanti as the one who spearheaded the “Mayor for the Day” program that had Solvang School student Finley Henderson touring the city and taking part in the City Council meeting on April 8.

Ellen Albertoni (Solvang Senior Center) and Karen Brown (Atterdag at Home; Meals on Wheels) advocated for their respective senior programs, while Ashley Madrid (Danish Days) and Steve Palmer (Solvang 4th of July Parade) were looking to help out their local staple events with grants or waived fees.

After presentations were done, City Councilmember Elizabeth Orona brought up the decision last year to require all grant recipients to provide documentation on how the grant money is spent.

“Last year we got pretty rigorous about our methodology and I thought it worked,” she said. “But I heard some chatter about whether they [previous grant recipients] were properly reporting on money and how it was spent.” 

Administrative Services Director Wendy Berry said that the recipients have to provide insurance, receipts, and proof of payment, but some haven’t yet. She said she sent emails requesting documentation and that they were planning to move the deadline for those documents to March 31 to make it more in line with the grant process.

Elizabeth Orona said she hoped the final reports were coming, because “that’s important for transperency.”

City Manager Randy Murphy suggested the city could require that repeat recipients have all their paperwork in for the previous year’s fund, before getting the current grant.

Orona was open to that, but said “we should not make any exception; being a nonprofit, they shoul expect that.”

In the other discussion item, the council heard the latest about the possible assessment increase the assessment of a Landscape and Lighting Maintenance District (LLMD) in the Skytt Mesa area of Solvang. Solvang Mesa Landscape & Lighting Maintenance District No. 2004-1 was established in November 2004 and must now be evaluated annually for any changes to its assessment.

The city has retained Francisco & Associates to prepare the annual Engineer’s Report for the Solvang Mesa LLMD. The Engineer’s Report outlines the estimated LLMD operations and maintenance budget for the 169-lot single-family residential subdivision, according to the project report. The report is proposing a 2 percent increase to bring the assessment to $1,388.02 per parcel.

During public comment on the item, Skytt Mesa resident Denise El-Amin, who had spoken in past meeting about getting the topic on the agenda (to the degree that Murphy called the item “Ms. El-Amin’s favorite subject) was against the increase.

“What you’re doing is illegal,” she said, saying that her previous home was in an LLMD is Duarte, and back then she was told that any increase in an assessment had to be approved by all residents in the district.

“It’s time to go legal with you guys, because you evidently don’t understand what an LLMD is,” El-Amin said. “I bought [my] house 10 years and they offered the same thing. It’s been 10 years now and we still don’t have a light. I have a $1,388 assessment, and all I’ve gotten is promises.”

After El-Amin’s claim, City Councilmember Claudia Orono checked state law on her laptop and said Section 22.500 of the California code “said that these districts can be established and special assessments may be levied.” Infanti agreed that the proposed assessment on Skytt Mesa does have a legal basis.

Ultimately, the council voted 5-0 to approve the resolution, and it will go to a public hearing at the next City Council meeting on May 13. 

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