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.
Safety concerns have grown across the Lompoc Valley's road network in recent years. Between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023, the study area experienced 870 motor vehicle crashes, including 22 fatal crashes resulting in 26 victims and 115 crashes involving severe injuries — a pattern closely tied to the rural, high-speed character of many of the Valley's roadways. Most recently, Caltrans reconfigured the intersection of Santa Lucia Canyon Road and SR 1 to prohibit left turns onto SR 1 in response to a series of fatal crashes and as a short-term safety intervention; while that change is expected to improve safety, it has increased vehicle miles traveled by rerouting traffic through a nearby unincorporated community, and identifying a long-term solution at this location is a central objective of the study.
Limited roadway connections to the regional transportation network and restricted highway capacity to the south and east of Lompoc also increase traffic congestion and restrict evacuation capacity, as identified in the City of Lompoc’s Safety Element of its General Plan.
At the same time, Vandenberg Space Force Base has expanded rapidly, moving from a handful of rocket launches per year to several per week as private-sector launch activity has grown alongside military operations. This growth represents a significant economic development opportunity for the region but is placing new and growing demands on the surrounding transportation network, underscoring the need for coordinated, proactive planning among SBCAG, Caltrans, VSFB, the County of Santa Barbara, the City of Lompoc, and other partners who have already been collaborating on these issues.
To carry out this work, SBCAG, in partnership with the City of Lompoc, applied for and was awarded a Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant (STPG) under the Strategic Partnerships category for Fiscal Year 2026-27. The study's findings are intended to directly inform SBCAG's next Regional Transportation Plan, expected in 2029, and the development of a potential successor investment measure to Measure A, tentatively anticipated around 2030 — continuing the long-range planning role Measure A has played in the region since voters first approved it in 2008. SBCAG is now issuing this RFP to retain a consultant team to carry out the Lompoc Valley Transportation Needs Study.
