Lompoc Valley Transportation Needs Study

The Lompoc Valley Transportation Needs Study will comprehensively examine transportation conditions across the Lompoc Valley in west-central Santa Barbara County, an area that includes the City of Lompoc, the unincorporated communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village, and Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), and recommend improvements to the transportation network. The study area extends beyond the Valley itself along two state highways: SR 1 from US 101 to the City of Lompoc, a roughly 18-mile rural, largely two-lane corridor, and SR 246 from the City of Lompoc to Domingos Road. Within these limits, the study will focus on a number of locations with known safety, congestion, or circulation concerns, including the Santa Lucia Canyon Road/SR 1 intersection, San Antonio Road West at SR 1, the VSFB California Boulevard, Solvang, and South Base gates, Lompoc Gate, a connection from Central Avenue to SR 246, Harris Grade Road connecting the Valley to SR 135, and the West Ocean Avenue corridor, where VSFB gate locations are expected to change in the coming years. The study will also evaluate key bicycle, pedestrian, and transit connections, including routes serving Allan Hancock College, and will examine regional and interregional freight access, given the Valley's lack of a direct connection to US 101 and its substantial agricultural sector. The effort is multimodal in scope and will run from early 2027 through mid-2028, culminating in a planning study document identifying a suite of improvements.