Violation notice issued to Canyon View Estates

Solar panels line a hillside in Canyon Country above the Canyon View Estates. The City of Santa Clarita has ordered the removal of these panels. Cory Rubin/ The Signal
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The city of Santa Clarita issued a notice of violation Monday to the owners of Canyon View Mobile Estates for installing solar panels without the required permits and failure to comply with conditions of approval, according to a news release.

The solar panels on the hillside were placed without the required permits and didn’t meet the conditions associated with the conditional use permit beyond the homes, said Kevin Strauss, communications specialist for the city.

Mobile housing parks are under the jurisdiction of California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, according to the news release.

However, the city noted there are permitted conditions through which Canyon View is allowed to operate within Santa Clarita city limits, Strauss said.

“This is an issue that arises from a land-use perspective,” said Strauss. “To then build in that open space, that’s when the city should have been brought into the loop.”

Conditions of approval require 50 percent of the property to be maintained as open space, he said.

Working with HCD, city staff have also obtained and reviewed materials concerning the solar project and its conditional use permit. The conditional use permit was originally issued by Los Angeles County.

“The review indicates that Canyon View Estates should have sought additional entitlements from the city, and is in violation of the conditional-use permit conditions of approval,” according to city officials in a statement issued Monday.

The installation of the solar panels to the hillside of Canyon View drew the ire of residents concerned about safety hazards ranging from electrocution, radiation, increased heat and flooding, among other dangers, according to previous Signal reporting.

One resident, Ben Turner, said he was quite surprised with the violation notice.

While residents met a year ago to discuss the panels, meetings continued as recent as six months ago, he said. The panels, which gave some and not all of his neighbors a reduction in energy costs, caused property value to increase, including the prices of home leases, Turner said.

The hillsides behind residents’ homes were cleared for the installation of the solar panels. In the past, consideration on installing the solar panels there came with the residents’ best interest in mind, according to Kerry Seidenglanz, the managing partner for the project, in a previous interview with The Signal.

He did not respond to a request for comment Monday, after news of the violation was reported.

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