With the goal of attracting more business developers to operate within Buellton’s city limits, city officials hope to save some costs on a long-running bowling alley project in development.

During its August 8 meeting, the Buellton City Council directed its staff to research ways to encourage the completion of the project and thereby offset some of the costs of developing the Waypoint Family Entertainment Center (formerly known as Live Oak Lanes) – a proposal that never came to fruition.

The proposed bowling alley, located on Highway 246, has undergone “several changes” as it has changed hands over the past 10 years, according to staff reports. A representative of the property’s current owners recently approached city staff with a request that, if approved, would mark a historic move on the city’s part, City Manager Scott Wolfe said at the meeting.

“They asked if the city would be willing to offer some kind of development incentive,” Wolfe said. “As far as I know, the city has never issued or offered a development incentive to bring development to the city.”

Wolfe recommended that the City Council make an exception in this case, “because this use of the city brings clear benefits to the community.”

“Based on the public opinion that I’ve heard, as well as the opinion of the City Council for several years, the city …, for lack of a better word, really wants to bring that use to the city,” Wolfe said. “There are a number of different types of incentives that we could look at.”

The City Council gave the green light to Wolfe’s proposal that staff explore two specific incentive options. One would offer the developer a rebate or refund on the sales tax generated by the bowling alley, while the other would offer a rebate or refund on the project’s property taxes.

“You could certainly do both,” said Wolfe, who estimated that neither option would generate “huge amounts of money.”

Buellton’s share of Santa Barbara County’s 7.75 percent sales tax is 1 percent of revenue, while the city receives a 16.52 percent share of property taxes collected (1 percent of a property’s assessed value), the staff report said.

“At this point, they’re looking for any kind of support the city can provide, no matter how small,” Wolfe said. “They might also want to see some kind of indication that the city is endorsing and actively supporting this project. … Knowing that the city is all in, so to speak, might give them some incentive and allow them to take a little more risk on construction.”

Following Wolfe’s presentation, Council Member David Silva spoke positively about the reimbursement/rebate incentives, saying they would essentially serve as a financial reward to project developers “based on their performance.”

Silva, however, asked staff if a cap would be necessary if the bowling alley’s profits reached “astronomical” levels. City Attorney Greg Murphy said those questions would be addressed at a future public meeting if the City Council voted to task staff with studying the proposed incentives.

“I’m interested in looking at (the options for) this project in particular and making the city a little more development-friendly in general,” Council Member Elysia Lewis said shortly before the council directed staff to conduct a study.