THE SANTA MARIA LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Santa Maria/Santa Ynez Valleys setting.
Santa Maria city has 22.8 square miles of land in Santa Barbara County. Its Census reference point is in Santa Maria/Santa Ynez Valleys, within Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains.
Oak woodland, chaparral and grassland occupy foothills and low coastal mountains around the Central Valley. Narrow agricultural valleys interrupt this landscape of dry summers and wetter winters.
Regional context: Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains ↗ · Classification at the Census reference point
Santa Maria and Santa Barbara County
Santa Maria is associated with Santa Barbara County in the Census boundary data. Start with the parcel’s tax bill to match the property to that jurisdiction, then confirm which government handles its land use.
Santa Maria by land and water
The Census records 0.61 square miles of water within Santa Maria, or 2.6% of its total area. It is 25.2 percentage points lower than the 27.8% recorded for Santa Barbara County. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Santa Maria city has 2.1 times the land area of nearby Orcutt CDP (10.8 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.

