An ordinance designed to streamline the process of building farmworker housing was sent back to the staff once again for what one staff member called “spaghetti changes” the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors worked out during the meeting Tuesday in Santa Maria.

Changes the board wanted made Tuesday will undo some of the changes supervisors requested the last time they considered the ordinance amendments Oct. 9.

But some of the discussion also focused on more philosophical issues that grew out of the staff analysis of potential thresholds for requiring a conditional use permit for agricultural employee housing based on applications for H-2A workers — nonimmigrant workers brought in to temporarily fill a labor shortage — from 2016 to 2018.

Supervisors questioned how many of those applications came from inside cities.

“It looks to me like we’re being the release valve for planning inside the city,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said.

They generally didn’t like the idea of large housing projects being built for H-2A workers

“I don’t want to build any (barracks),” 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam said. “I think that’s a horrible idea.”

Adam said 25,000 people work in agriculture in Santa Barbara County.

“A great preponderance of them are between here and Lompoc,” he said, adding the amendments didn’t seem to be doing anything for them.

Board Chairman and 1st District Supervisor Das Williams said what he’s trying to do is tackle smaller projects for workers who are commuting from Carpinteria and “clogging up our highways.”