This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.
Twenty years from now, if you drive from Orcutt to Los Alamos, you may see what looks like an entirely new town. The development group Solstra Communities California is proposing a new urban area in northern Santa Barbara County that if built would have up to 4,000 units of housing, including single-family homes, apartments, and townhomes. The area would also include new roads, shops, offices, parks, fire and police stations, a school, and hiking trails through undeveloped country.
The project site, known as Solomon Hills, is a few miles south of Orcutt and spans 4,200 acres of rural land zoned for commercial agriculture. Oak woodland, chaparral coast sage, and non-native grasses grow on the land, which includes the hillsides, bluffs, valleys, and canyons, according to a county report. For more than a century, county documents state, portions of the acreage have been used for oil and gas production…