Solvang Council Seeks New Location for Water Treatment Plant

The City of Solvang must build a new water treatment plant in order to comply with state water quality regulations.

But it must now find another location other than the preferred spot on land the city ownsadjacent to Alisal Commons Park.

Homeowners and property owners near the project site voiced opposition to the proposed location before the Solvang City Council Monday night saying it will hurt their property values with noise and visual impacts.

“The two biggest concerns are thesound and the smell”, one woman told the Council, “my son suffers from migraines so they are affected by smells.”

“The biggest thing that I have is that this is commercial plant directly next to a residential neighborhood”, another man said.

Others said it should be built in an industrial area of the city away from homes and businesses even it meant spending more to acquire land to build the treatment plant that’s expected to cost more than $2 million.

“Seeing the other options, it’s a little more money”, a homeowner told the Council, ” but sometimes you need to spend money in place of aesthetics that you are going to create to theneighborhood like we have.”

With two council members excused due to potential conflicts of interest, three of the five Solvang City Council membersdecided to pursue building the water treatment plantat another location other than the preferredsite next to Alisal Commons Park.

The project will come back to the Council for further review and consideration of a new location.