![[City Seal]](graphics/cityseal.gif)
![[Welcome to Santa Maria]](graphics/limit.gif)
![[All-America City Logo]](graphics/aac.gif)
The Highway 101 widening project in Santa Maria is underway and scheduled to be completed in 2008. For information about lane closures call (888) 727-6237.
![[California Map]](graphics/ca.gif)
Santa Maria is located in the northern end of Santa Barbara County, in
what is called locally the Central Coast of
California. By road, it's approximately
270 miles south of San Francisco,
170 miles north of Los Angeles, and
15 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
![[Santa Barbara County Map]](graphics/sbco.gif)
Santa Barbara County is
2,737 square miles [land area] (780 more than the state of Delaware) of
plains and valleys, which lie between 109 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline,
and the mountains of the Los
Padres National Forest.
The Los Padres NF covers approximately one third of the county. Santa
Barbara County is bordered by San Luis
Obispo County to the north,
Ventura County to the east,
and the ocean to the west and south.
![[Santa Maria City Map]](graphics/sm.gif)
The city of Santa Maria is easily accessible from
US Highway 101.
Other routes to the area include
State Route 166,
via Interstate 5 from
the east, and via SR-1
from the west. If driving to the area, you may want to check the
statewide road conditions
from the California Department of
Transportation (CalTrans). The
Santa Maria Public Airport
provides commuter service from
SkyWest Airlines,
which operates as United Express, a feeder for
United Airlines.
Some of the larger nearby cities include
San Luis Obispo (home of
California Polytechnic State
University), 30 miles to the north,
Lompoc (home of
Vandenberg Air Force Base), 30
miles to the south, and
Santa Barbara (home of
the University of California at Santa
Barbara), 75 miles to the southeast. Other local cities and towns
include Orcutt,
Guadalupe,
Arroyo Grande,
Pismo Beach, and
Solvang.
The 30th Space Wing of the 14th Air Force (The Flying Tigers) is located at Vandenberg. The 576th Flight Test Squadron there is responsible for testing the US Air Force's InterContinental Ballistic Missiles, sending them to the Marshall Islands. It is also the only U.S. launch site for military, NASA, and civilian satellites to polar orbit. Numerous companies, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, their joint venture United Launch Alliance, and Orbital Sciences Corporation, have facilities there to serve both the military and commercial customers. Operated and managed by Spaceport Systems International, the SSI Commercial Spaceport is the first federally licensed private Commercial Space Launch Site Operator in the United States. The California Space Authority helps bring together the public and private sectors to further California's space-based industries.
The city of Santa Maria and the Santa Maria Valley Economic Development Commission, are actively seeking businesses to relocate, expand, or start-up in the city. Some of the city's selling points are a cooperative city government, quality lifestyle, and excellent labor force. One of the largest employers, UPS Teleservices (formerly Microage Teleservices), came to town several years ago. Another company who has moved to the area is Melfred Borzall from Santa Fe Springs. More recently, Kirby Morgan Dive Systems relocated from Santa Barbara. Although they arrived in town in 1990, Hardy Diagnostics has grown to the point that they just broke ground on their third building. Swedish software company IST opened their US office in Santa Maria.
Major employers list, from the Santa Maria Valley Economic Development Commission.
Moving south, at Broadway and Stowell, is a JCPenney. The Broadway and Betteravia area is home to Longs Drug, Kragen Auto Parts, Target, 99 Cents Only, and Ross Dress for Less. On the southern edge of town, at Broadway and Santa Maria Way is the K-mart. Further south, at Clark Avenue and Bradley Road in Orcutt, the Oak Knolls Shopping Center has over 70 merchants to serve you.
Most of the new retail construction is taking place along the Highway 101 corridor. At the Stowell interchange is a Costco, Toys R Us, Office Depot, and Circuit City. Located near the newly enlarged Betteravia/101 interchange are Home Depot, Staples, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Linens 'n Things, and PetsMart.
This is by no means a complete list of the area's businesses. You can see that, like many American cities, we have outlets for many of the major chains. I also encourage you to patronize the many locally owned small merchants.
How about a museum? The Santa Maria Valley Historical Society Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, or view their on-line tour of historic downtown. Don't forget the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum for kids and the Santa Maria Valley Railway Historical Museum. The Santa Maria Museum of Flight, which sponsors the annual Thunder Over the Valley airshow, is at the airport.
The area's climate is conducive to many outdoor sports, or just relaxing in one of the many city or county parks. Waller Park has a 27-hole disc golf course, and Preisker Park has a brand new 18-hole disc golf course. There are also some of those "real" golf courses around, too. Santa Marians also enjoy something known as the Santa Maria Style Barbecue. Just up the coast are Pismo Beach (famous for their clams) and Avila Beach for "sun worshipers." More conventional worshipers may want to see a list of local churches.
Maps courtesy of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the US Census Bureau's Tiger Mapping Service. I've modified them some, however.
For more Santa Maria Valley links, check out the Strawberry Web, but a lot of their links are out-of-date.
![[Flag]](graphics/smflag.gif){kind=small}
Written and copyright (c) 2008 by
Eric Treankler
(et@lospadrescounty.net)