While a potentially billion-dollar movie studio investment has been dead since June, Shadowbox Studios is now asking the city for an extra year on the zoning changes approved in 2023 for its 93-acre Placerita Canyon property, even as rumors of housing projects begin to rumble.
A representative for Shadowbox Studios has declined to comment on the property or the company’s plans, leaving some in Placerita Canyon and North Newhall to worry that a worst-case scenario might be coming north of Railroad Avenue, near the entrance to the canyon.
During the original discussion of Shadowbox’s zone changes in 2023, city officials acknowledged concerns that if the plan for 19 soundstages and about 1.3 million square feet of commercial development doesn’t go through, then a developer could put up about 2,000 homes. Not only that, state housing laws and the land’s proximity to the Jan Heidt Metrolink Station mean the requirement to provide parking likely is either minimal or nonexistent.
That’s not quite what’s in the latest plan that was discussed at a recent school board meeting, but there was talk of housing for the Shadowbox property.
“This is the first time we have seen a proposal for this property that hasn’t included a significant number of housing units,” then-Mayor Cameron Smyth wrote in a text shortly before the Shadowbox project’s original approval for soundstages. “And given the continual consolidation of land-use decisions by the state, it’s critical the city has final say where the community has the ability to provide input.”
However, in the several years since the project was first proposed, insiders have lamented how the property market has changed. A series of industry strikes have resulted in production largely moving out of state and even overseas. The city confirmed recently there’s hasn’t been any significant movement on the soundstage plans in more than a year.
In recent weeks, a local school district discussed the first hint of what’s to come.
An April 22 presentation in front of the Newhall School District governing board about housing developments within its attendance boundaries noted the possibility of nearly 390 units for a property along Railroad Avenue, from about 12th to 16th streets, which would have been at the entrance to the Shadowbox property. Based on a graphic presented by the school district, the parcels being eyed for the project would represent many of the same parcels.
That also puts the plans just east of property identified in a land swap involving Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste that facilitated the extension of Dockweiler Drive. That $60-million, two-year project, approved in March and expected to start later this year, is intended to pave the way for significant development in North Newhall and Placerita Canyon, including The Master’s University campus.
The zoning changes Shadowbox wants to extend include the addition of about 50 acres of the property into the city’s Job Creation Overlay Zone, which allows for 50-foot-tall buildings, tract map changes, minor use permits and a ridgeline alteration permit.
Jason Crawford, director of community development for the city, said the extension has not yet been approved; however, he also said the request was a procedural one expected to be granted once the application is finalized.
The unnamed plan mentioned in the April 22 Newhall School District discussion did not have a developer attached to it, according to the presentation, which referred to the land as a “not named” property near Railroad Avenue and Wiley Canyon Road.
City officials said they have not had any new projects come in seeking approval on the Shadowbox property, so they could not verify the source of the Newhall School District’s information.
A district official said the presentation came from Steven Gald, executive director of California Financial Services. He did not respond to a request for comment.
