The city of Santa Clarita’s Planning Commission ordered a developer Tuesday to come back with more information and more commercial space on a property planned for 106 market-rate homes on a nearly 10-acre plot in Newhall, with a 4,000-square-foot retail center.
The project at 23755 Newhall Ave., on the southern side of that street between Carl Court and Valle del Oro, was ordered back next month with a 4-0 vote. Tim Burkhart recused himself from the discussion as his recent City Council campaign received a contribution from a developer associated with the project.
The project has three components: a four-story, 70-unit apartment building with a partially exposed basement level; 36 two-story townhome apartment units across seven buildings; and a single-story, 4,000 square-foot commercial building on the hillside property.
One project complaint seemed to be in a trend the Planning Commission lamented from the dais involving the retail portion, which is expected to account for less than 5% of the project’s floor space. The zoning allows for a maximum of 200,000 square feet of commercial space and a recommendation of at least 50,000.
Developers are more and more pitching “mixed-use” projects supposed to include a combination of homes and retail, which are falling short on the latter more and more often in plans being presented, said Lisa Eichman, chair of the city’s Planning Commission.
“One of the concerns that I have is how does this project meet the requirement, the objective to make it more walkable and reduce vehicle trips — with a 4,000-square-foot commercial (element),” Eichman said. “It just doesn’t seem like it really meets that objective, and we keep approving these projects that are ‘mixed-use’ with kind of ridiculous commercial components.”
The commission also discussed the lack of an oak tree feasibility report in the presentation, as the project called for dozens of oaks to be removed and replaced by the replanting of much smaller ones. Commissioners asked for larger trees in the replanting.
The current lot has Mountain Motors, a used car dealership, and Dip Stick Oil Change, with the balance of the land on an undeveloped hillside, according to a city report on the property, which also counted 122 oak trees on the property and within 200 feet of the grading area.
The recently completed Needham Ranch Business Park is situated at the top of the slope for the property, above and immediately south of the project site, with some of the land already having been graded for that development.
The zoning for the area allows for anywhere from 11 to 30 units per acre on the 9.7-acre property.
The plan has changed slightly over the years, with a July 2021 application calling for 105 units with parking provided through a combination of carports, individual garages and surface spaces. The latest version of the plan calls for 262 spaces to be provided.
With a basement level of parking on the apartment building, that’s expected to be 61 feet, according to city planners. The building is oriented around a central courtyard, located on the ground-floor level that is open to the sky.
Planning commissioners asked for closer to 10% of the floor space to be commercial in the revised plan, as well as an updated traffic study, a thorough tree feasibility study regarding the potential to move versus replace trees and the potential of opening another driveway for project access.
The city faces a 90-day deadline for final approval, including a City Council review, under recently approved state housing laws meant to expedite such projects and prevent local governments from being able to slow down the production of housing.
The project is due back before the Planning Commission on June 17 to address the questions about the project.
