"You see people up on the sidewalks trying to walk or on their bikes, or when the sidewalk goes away, now we're jumping onto the road."
That was one observation caught by a local TV reporter this month, describing what already happens along the stretch between Buellton and the rest of the Valley. It's not a new problem. Highway 246 is the only road connecting Buellton to Santa Ynez and the towns beyond it, and it was built for cars moving at speed, not for the people who live here trying to get from a farmers market to a front door on foot or on two wheels.
That's the everyday friction behind the news that broke in the second week of August: the Santa Ynez Valley Trail Project, a proposed nine-mile path meant to connect Buellton, Solvang, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Reservation, and the unincorporated county land between them, is officially moving into public review. If you've seen a headline about it and assumed a new path is arriving soon, the actual documents tell a narrower story. One piece of this project has real money and a real timeline. The rest of it is still a question mark, and that question mark is exactly where residents get a say.
Nine Miles Talked About as One Project, Funded as Several
The idea of a river-adjacent trail through the Valley isn't new. It first showed up on paper in the 2019 Santa Ynez Valley Bike Master Plan, and people who've spent decades advocating for safer walking and biking routes here have been pushing some version of it since long before that. What changed this year is that the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, working with the cities of Buellton and Solvang, the county, the Chumash tribe, and Caltrans, has enough money in hand to start treating one piece of the corridor as a real project rather than a long-term wish.
That piece is called Segment A, and it sits entirely within Buellton, starting at Riverview Park.
What's Already Moving
In June, SBCAG's board voted 12-0 to accept a $1.43 million federal infrastructure grant secured by the Chumash tribe, the largest piece of a combined $2.6 million in federal, state and local funding now committed to the project. SBCAG put out a request for proposals in October 2025, received four responses, and selected the Psomas consultant team in January to handle the environmental review, engineering, right-of-way work and permitting needed to get the Buellton segment construction-ready.
That work runs from now through 2028. Construction on Segment A isn't expected to break ground before then.
Buellton's mayor, David Silva, who also serves as SBCAG's vice chair, put the town's role plainly: Buellton is fortunate to be the starting point, he said, and it's easy to forget that the city functions as the gateway to the rest of the Valley. That gateway framing matters, because it's also a fair description of what Segment A is not. It's a beginning, not a connection between towns.
What's Still Just a Study
Everything east of Buellton, the part of the corridor that would actually let someone walk or bike between Solvang and Santa Ynez without touching Highway 246, falls under what the project documents call Segments B through F. Right now that's a corridor-wide planning study, not a funded construction project. The work happening on those segments through 2028 is environmental and technical analysis and preliminary design, meant to prepare them for a future round of pre-construction work once more money is secured. No completion date exists for any of it, because no funding source for building it exists yet either.
There is one exception worth knowing about if you already walk or bike this stretch. East of the Solvang town center, an existing bike path already runs along the north side of Highway 246 from roughly Alamo Pintado Road to Santa Ynez Valley Union High School. The project plans to fold that stretch in and give it what SBCAG's construction director called subtle improvements. It's the one piece of the middle corridor that isn't starting from zero.
Here's the corridor broken down as it actually stands, not as it reads in a single headline:
| Segment | What it covers | Construction funding secured? | Realistic timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segment A | Buellton, starting at Riverview Park | Yes, in pre-construction phase | Construction not expected before 2028 |
| Existing path | Alamo Pintado Rd. to Santa Ynez Valley Union High School | Already built, minor upgrades planned | Ongoing |
| Segments B–F | Eastern Buellton, Solvang, unincorporated county, Chumash Reservation, toward Hwy. 154 | No, planning study only | Undetermined, pending future funding |
Why Highway 246 Is the Reason Any of This Matters
The county's own reasoning for the project is blunt: Highway 246 is the only roadway linking Buellton to Santa Ynez and the surrounding communities, and its size and speed limits make it unsafe for a sidewalk or trail alongside it. SBCAG spokesperson Lauren Bianchi Klemann has said there's currently no continuous trail connection between Buellton and Highway 154, which is why people end up on shoulders and sidewalks that disappear mid-block.
That gap is precisely why the middle segments matter more to daily life here than Segment A does, at least in the near term. A finished Buellton loop is a genuine improvement for people in Buellton. It doesn't change how anyone gets between Solvang and Santa Ynez on foot or by bike this year, next year, or most likely for several years after that.
The Map Is Still Blank
The part of this story that's easy to miss in a quick headline is that no route has been chosen for any of it beyond Buellton. Tom Vo, SBCAG's principal transportation planner and the project manager, has said as much directly: this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end, and no trail alignment has been selected. SBCAG is asking the community to help identify the places, connections and local considerations that should shape the engineering and design work as it moves forward.
SBCAG's executive director, Marjie Kirn, framed it as a matter of local knowledge: the people who live, work and recreate in the Valley know where the connections are missing, where the safety concerns are, and what makes these communities distinct, and that knowledge is meant to guide the work from here.
In practice, that means an interactive map at SYVTrail.com where residents, business owners, property owners and regular trail users can drop location-specific comments: where you already walk, bike or ride, where you'd like new connections, and where you've noticed a safety gap. Questions can also go to the project team at [email protected] or by phone at (805) 600-4477.
Where to Show Up Before the Alignment Is Set
Beyond the online map, the project team is planning to show up at events already on the Valley's calendar this fall, which means there's no need to carve out a special trip to weigh in.
- Today, Monday, Aug. 17 — the project team is at the Buellton Farmers' Market
- Wednesday, Aug. 26 — Solvang Music in the Park
- Oct. 3-4 — the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Intertribal Powwow at the corner of Highway 246 and Meadowvale Road
- Beginning Nov. 6 — Buellton Fall Fest
If you're someone who already crosses this corridor on foot, on a bike, or on horseback, this stretch of fall is the window where showing up actually shapes what gets built, rather than reading about a decision after it's made.
What This Actually Means for Right Now
If you live here, the honest summary is this: one small, real piece of a much larger idea has money and a contractor and a rough finish line of 2028. The rest of the corridor, the eight miles that would knit Solvang and Santa Ynez together on something other than a highway shoulder, is still an open question with an open map. That's not a reason to tune the project out. It's the reason to submit a comment while the alignment is still unwritten, because the version of this trail that eventually shows up near your own street depends on who spoke up this fall and who didn't.
If you're weighing a move within the Valley now or down the road and want a sense of how projects like this tend to shape a neighborhood's long-term feel, Central Coast Landmark Properties and Broker Kris Johnston follow this corridor closely. Request a private consultation and market assessment whenever the time is right.
