A pair of homes on a Canyon Country cul-de-sac on a hillside have drawn the ire of the city’s code enforcement, city officials confirmed Tuesday.
In closed session Tuesday, the Santa Clarita City Council unanimously approved a nuisance abatement proceeding against the owner of the property at 27952 Oakgale Ave. in Canyon Country.
City attorney Joe Montes announced the action after the council returned to the dais before the start of Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting.
The city confirmed action was underway against two properties on the same street — code enforcement has an active case against 27950 Oakgale Ave., which is directly east — but that the neighboring property is at the end of the city’s administrative process and the city was therefore escalating the action, per officials.
No one answered the door at either property Monday afternoon.
A community resident reached out to The Signal via email to express concerns over the property that reached back more than a dozen years. The person, who asked to remain unnamed due to safety concerns, said he didn’t live on the street but was concerned about the eyesore and potential health hazard the collection represents.
The hillside facing the street showed collections of items overflowing; the lawns for both properties contained collections of various items, a range as eclectic as a hand-shaped chair to a collection of packages with random addresses to a sign that said “FB Pick Up Here.”
“In closed session, with respect to the potential initiation of litigation item the City Council voted unanimously to authorize a nuisance abatement proceeding with respect to the property at 27952 Oakgale,” according to a statement from city spokeswoman Carrie Lujan. “The proceeding will be an administrative process, followed by civil litigation if necessary.”
Officials said their efforts to work with the property owner at 27952 Oakgale Ave. ultimately proved unsuccessful, which is what resulted in the latest action.
“City staff had been working with the property owner to attempt to obtain voluntary compliance. Some initial cooperation was achieved, in response to the issuance of administrative citations for violations of the property maintenance standards set forth in the city’s Municipal Code,” Lujan said. “However, the property owner has not made any real progress in connection with the requested compliance.”
Lujan wrote in an email Tuesday that the city’s codes are “an important tool to help preserve not only the beauty and value of the city’s neighborhoods, but also the health and safety of property owners and their neighbors.”
“The city will now move forward to seek to have the property declared a public nuisance and have a court order an abatement order that will require the property owner to bring the property into compliance,” she added. “Failing that, the city will seek court authorization to allow the city to clean up the property at the property owner’s expense.”
