A proposal to build dozens of rental apartments—in a controversial high-density complex next to a neighborhood of single family homes—is headed to Solvang City Hall.
Owners of the nearby Alisal Ranch resort say they intend to submit a full development application this month for 88 units, including four reserved for “very low income” workers. The project would span multiple buildings on a vacant 3.7 acres located along Alisal Road at Juniper Avenue and Fjord Drive.
“We view this as an opportunity to make better use of vacant land and at the same time have a positive impact on Solvang’s housing shortage,” Jim Jackson, a representative of the Palmer G. Jackson Revocable Trust, said in a statement. The trust owns the project site and seeks to develop it in partnership with Price Taylor Enterprises LLC.
The unit count matches a preliminary application for the Alisal Glen Way Apartments the developers submitted in April.
That initial plan described five structures two- and three-stories tall. On Friday, the Jacksons said they anticipate four three-story buildings of one- and two-bedroom households.
‘Completely hamstrung’
A city of 5,944 residents, Solvang has more than 2,726 households across its 2.43 square miles, with 57% of them owner occupied, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
An increase of 88 units—a number equivalent to 7.5% of the city’s entire estimated rental inventory—would significantly boost leasing opportunities.
Yet with the vast majority of those units expected to be market rate, critics say the project should be more affordable.
And it comes as nearby neighbors say they worry about an irreversible decline in small-town character.
In response, city leaders say state housing rules limit what they can do about it.
“The city is extremely limited,” said Rafael Castillo, Solvang community development director. “The state of California has completely hamstrung municipalities.”
Fire, traffic, evacuations
Drew PIckering, who lives near the project site, said he wishes authorities had considered proactively annexing other land more suited to high-density development.
“We’re concerned with the impacts,” he said. “It seems like this was a rush job.”
In May, Pickering penned a letter of opposition reportedly co-signed by as many as 300 other people. Questioning impacts to public safety, it urged city leaders to consider fire dangers, traffic and potential strains on evacuation routes.
“The addition of well over one hundred vehicles from the proposed development onto Alisal Road poses a severe evacuation hazard,” the letter stated. “As a single-lane rural arterial road, it constricts downstream to create an inescapable bottleneck in town. Evacuation south toward Nojoqui Falls Park is highly unreliable due to its narrow and winding nature as well as frequent closures from washouts, downed trees and construction.”
While the project would require at least 113 parking spots, the developers’ preliminary application envisioned 138. Time will tell if that number remains.
Bill Dentzel, who lives near the project site, said he’d prefer to see it restored as a wetland.
And while he’s not against new housing, the proposal is oversized and inappropriate, Dentzel said. “There are much better solutions to the housing shortage than this.”
The site
Located near the Santa Ynez River opposite a leg of the River Course at Alisal golf course, a portion of the project site functions like a park. A wire fence blocks access to the rest.
A sloped upper portion features walking paths and wide views of the nearby Santa Ynez Mountains. Below, Juniper Avenue bisects a flatter stretch.
As Solvang city leaders await the full development application, they say addressing frustrations hasn’t been easy.
In recent years, state housing mandates have increasingly restricted how much control cities and counties across California can wield over land use decisions.
The city can still influence the development in a few key ways. These include pushing for landscaping, fire and safety measures, potentially stepping the architecture, and connecting the site to nearby parks, the planning director Castillo said.
“This is a public participation process,” he said, urging residents to make their wishes known. “I implore them to do that.”
Legal underpinnings
In an exercise repeated in jurisdictions from San Diego to Crescent City, the Solvang City Council in 2024 rezoned the proposed project site, known as Site D, from recreational to high-density residential. This aligned it with a General Plan Housing Element update the city adopted in 2023.
The goal was to help the city satisfy Sacramento lawmakers, by identifying several sites for building at least 191 total new housing units by 2031.
The Solvang Housing Element targets those units for a range of affordability levels by workers earning “extremely low” to “above moderate” incomes.
The four units in the Alisal Glen Way project would serve non-Section 8 renters considered “very low income” in Santa Barbara County, meaning they earn less than $88,250 annually for a family of four, officials say.
Among other stipulations, the city must honor a state law that provides the project a “density bonus.” Because four of its 88 units target “very low income” renters, the project qualifies for up to 90 total units instead of 75.
Under state law SB 330, passed in 2019 and subsequently extended to 2030, Solvang can hold no more than five public hearings as it reviews the incoming application.
An initial city response
Responding to the developers’ initial plans, the city in May sent a list of requirements officials say the full application should address—including fire danger and traffic mitigations as well as public works improvements including new sidewalks, streetlights and storm drains.
At the annual Solvang “State of the City” event on Aug. 27, the planning director Castillo said he and other officials are working to ensure the project meets fundamental needs.
“If you’re a developer, you need to pay your own way,” Castillo told the audience. “You need to install the required infrastructure and traffic improvements.”
City Councilmember Mark Infanti said he views some neighborhood concerns as misplaced.
“Those are the same people that didn’t want us to build Fjord and extend it around to Mission so there was an escape route,” he said. “It’s a little tough to take some of the complaints when I know about some of the other complaints.”
At the same time, Infanti said the apartments would cause more traffic.
“No two ways about it,” he said, adding views from upper units might infringe on the privacy of nearby homes. “Could they change the design and block windows? … So far it’s been nothing more than a rough draft, if you will, of what it could be.”
Council members Claudia Orona and Louis Smith and Mayor David Brown could not be reached for comment.
‘Beyond disappointing’
Council member Elizabeth Orona said she’s hopeful the developers bring back something opponents consider more compatible.
“The current plan is incongruous,” Orona said, adding she wants to see the city conduct its own traffic study, not rely on one from the developers.
In its 2024 rezone of the property, the city sought to gain more than four units of affordable housing, Orona said.
“We wouldn’t have rezoned without the intent of retiring some chunk of that 191-unit requirement,” Orona said. “We want density in order to develop for people who need affordable housing.
“What we have is a developer who’s absolutely answered our intent with something that is completely different,” she said. “When our developers do not come to us with a plan that meets our intent, it’s beyond disappointing.”
“We’ve done everything that the state requires,” Orona said. “Now it’s up to the developers to meet us where we’ve jumped off.”
