Solvang, like other Santa Ynez Valley towns, is small and built on strong community values — a place where people know their neighbors, where scenic views define the landscape, and where residents assume that, through their elected representatives, they have a voice in decisions affecting their future. But action by City Staff and inaction by City Council regarding the Wildwood development application has shaken that sense of community to its core.
Wildwood is a proposed 100-unit high density apartment complex covering a steep hill and scenic view-scape at Alamo Pintado and Old Mission Drive.
On January 13, 2025, residents gathered at the City Council meeting, demanding that Council follow the law and act to stop the Planning Department from pushing through a defective Wildwood application. Instead of action, residents were met with silence.
City Council first failed to follow the law in 2023 when it was eight months late submitting to the state an approved General Plan Housing Element. The proposed Wildwood project is a blatant attempt to take advantage of that failure.
Wildwood will irrevocably damage Solvang’s small-town character. It will add over 200 vehicles coming and going through an already congested main gateway into Solvang, and will create serious hazards for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. A requested waiver allowing insufficient on-site parking will result in increased illegal parking as 250 new residents and their visitors fight for spaces. Taxpayers will have to pay for new infrastructure to deal with blocked intersections, increased erosion runoff, and flooding.
Developer’s Builder’s Remedy application attempts to bypass Solvang’s General Plan and zoning laws and shorten normal public review procedures. Wildwood, promoted as addressing the affordable housing crisis, falls far short, Developer proposes only 13 affordable units — far below the 36-unit goal proposed in Solvang’s General Plan, a goal we strongly support. Eighty-seven higher income units are not needed, will damage Solvang’s vital tourism business, burden its infrastructure, consume precious resources, and serve only to increase developer profits.
By following the law now, Solvang could easily recover from its past failures. From the beginning, the Wildwood application has failed to meet the clear and basic State Code requirements, and therefore is void. However, instead of following the law and declaring it void, staff has overlooked the application’s deficiencies, and pushed it along, thereby prioritizing developer interests over those of the community. Council has a duty to oversee and correct staff’s failure to follow the law. Instead, Council does nothing.
Residents have stated many times that Council cannot continue to give “our hands are bound by state law” as an excuse for inaction, when Council’s own staff continues to selectively follow that very law in favor of the developer: First applying the State Code to invite the developer to file a Builder’s Remedy pre-application; then ignoring the Code when it clearly provided rules, mandates, and multiple remedies to reject the pre-application for initially failing to provide Code-required information and later for failing to provide requested documentation before Code-prescribed deadlines. There is no excuse for Council’s failure to insist that Staff consistently follow the law. This is not how good government functions.
This failure cannot go unchallenged. Without action from Council, residents are left with no choice but to consider legal action. Residents have asked Council to either hear and act on their appeal of staff actions or act itself to direct staff to follow the law, stop processing the pre-application, and direct that a new, non-Builder’s Remedy application be submitted. But Council still does nothing.
This is about more than one project. It is about the future of Solvang and the Valley, and whether or not our local governments will serve the people who live in this unique place or serve the developers who seek to profit from that uniqueness and irrevocably damage it in the process.
All residents are urged to write, call or email Solvang Council members and demand that they follow the law and stop processing the current Wildwood application. Call: 805-688-5575 ext 204; email: council@cityofsolvang.com
Signed,
Mark Oliver; Susanne Powell; Chantal Cloutier; Craig Kent: Katie Kusske; Brian Carrillo; Stephen Martin; Kathleen Day; Dan Martin; Janet C. Forster; Paul Matthies; Suzi Matthies; Barbara Allen; Susan Shehab; Felicia Carroll; Al Cortese; Peggie Holley; Bill Powell; Dr. Cynthia Matthews; Diana Story; Michelle Neels; Sandra Mills; Heidi Iwasko; Linda Martin; Ginny Erlich; Elaine Morris; Kelley Davis; Bob Snyder; Ted Allen; John Alexander Moisan; Joseph Kalina; Jacqueline Kalina; Mark Frank; Kent Lockart; Lansing Duncan; Dennis Beebe; Phyllis Martinez; Karen Waite; Patricia Snyder; JoAnn Taylor; Jeff Nelson; Linda C. Smith — Residents of Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley