The city of Santa Clarita Planning Division is discussing plans for a gated senior community with 341 single-family homes on approximately 194 acres in Sand Canyon.
The project is being proposed for property east of the intersection of Sand Canyon and Lost Canyon roads, and north of Sand Canyon Country Club, according to information shared by Santa Clarita City Hall.
A New Urban West official said the project, which will carry the same name as a popular 55-plus community on the west side of town, Belcaro of Valencia, is using that formula to capture the award-winning appeal for new homes on the other side of town: Belcaro of Sand Canyon.
“Belcaro at Sand Canyon is designed to be a vibrant, wellness-centered community for Santa Clarita’s seniors,” said Adam Browning, president of New Urban West, in an email sent Monday by spokesman John Musella. “We’re using our highly sought-after, award-winning Belcaro Valencia community as the inspiration for this new, age-restricted community which prioritizes preserving over half of the land as open space and creating 4.4 miles of trails. We believe Belcaro Sand Canyon will be a place where 55-plus Sand Canyon residents can downsize within the canyon they love, or families in the canyon can move their parents and grandparents to be close to them.”
The plans call for an extension of Lost Canyon Road to the project from its current terminus at Oak Springs Canyon Road, which would require a bridge, according to Jason Crawford, the city’s director of community development.
“They would be building it, and they would be extending the road,” Crawford said, but also adding, that it’s so early in the process, the plans are still being worked out in terms of “what will be public or what will be private.”
The original plans for the property called for 99 units, according to city documents, but the new proposal by New Urban West for market-rate senior homes in a gated community qualifies as a housing development, which means the developer can apply for a “density bonus.” Under state law, a density bonus allows a developer to put up more units than the original zoning calls for, which pushed the requested number of units from 284 to a possible 341.
The project was recently discussed during a meeting of the Santa Clarita City Council’s Development Review Committee at Santa Clarita City Hall.
The plans are requesting permission to alter a significant ridgeline and change the standard lot width and lot size for the area.
New West also is the developer that is looking to develop the former Whittaker-Bermite property into Sunridge, a community of more than 6,000 homes in the center of the city.
The project is still in its planning phases, with the state-mandated environmental impact review process expected to start in March through a bidding process awarded by the Santa Clarita City Council.
The project could be in front of the Santa Clarita City Council as a proposal for approval next spring, Crawford said.
