Looking to address campus growth “in the next decade and beyond,” The Master’s University submitted a master plan update to the city of Santa Clarita for construction TMU is hoping will coincide with its 100th anniversary.
TMU has expanded its student body over the years, but the city indicated to the university two things would need to happen before any new plans were approved for the campus: the extension of Dockweiler Drive would need to be approved to accommodate traffic, and a new master plan would need to be submitted.
The campus’ previous master plan was submitted and approved in 2009 and then extended in 2020.
A questionnaire submitted to the city by TMU in February described the latest plan as “a 10-acre campus expansion of The Master’s University consisting of five new buildings and associated accessory uses totaling approximately 115,826 square feet.”
The plans include: a nearly 68-foot-tall, 40,612-square-foot chapel building set back a minimum of 150 feet from all surrounding property boundaries; a 33,442-square-foot practice gymnasium with support facilities and a basement cafeteria; two classroom buildings totaling 33,597 square feet — a science building and a math-kinesiology building; and a 4,642-square-foot student welcome center that would be located along Placerita Canyon Road.
“The Centennial Project concept connects to the existing main campus with a pedestrian-oriented layout while providing for a major reorientation of student housing into the previously approved Hilltop Campus,” according to the project description submitted to City Hall in February. “The Hilltop Campus would become a student residential community located adjacent to classrooms, the central library, dining commons and existing dormitories. By focusing all future student housing on the Hilltop Campus, the primary daily traffic for all new dorm students and current campus students would be redirected to the Dockweiler Drive entrance to the university.”
A TMU spokesman confirmed Thursday the university is still working with the city on its plan.
“As we work closely with the city through the master plan revision process, we remain committed to thoughtful growth that preserves the character of the Placerita Canyon neighborhood while ensuring we can continue serving our students effectively,” Mason Nesbitt, spokesman for TMU, wrote in a text message.
The Signal first reported TMU’s plans in October, which drew concerns about traffic, crowding in the canyon and the proposed expansion.
City leadership has expressed support for TMU’s plans, and planners have made accommodations to help the college in the meantime, including residential high-occupancy permits for dozens of homes that have been converted into student housing.
For residents like Mitchell Landau, the growth has been at the expense of their quiet, equestrian-friendly canyon in a special standards district that’s feeling less and less so every day.
He said the residents heard about the latest plans submitted in February, but he’s hopeful the city will make TMU go through the state’s environmental review process for the plans, which will give residents a chance to air their concerns. He said he felt city leadership has been largely apathetic to their public comments during council meetings.
“I mean, there’s really nothing we can do. We go to the city and we say our opinion, and they say they don’t care,” he said, specifically mentioning Mayor Bill Miranda’s recent comments about TMU building a “world-class university” in Santa Clarita.
Miranda said in January that TMU was a major landholder in the area, and that he would be “hesitant to take away their rights.”
Jason Crawford, director of community development for the city, said planning staff is still working with the applicant, and the plans will go through a review process.
“It will need to go through an environmental CEQA process,” Crawford said via text Thursday, referring to the California Environmental Quality Act, which mandates a project look at its potential environmental impacts. “Exactly what that looks like be able to determine once we get all the information from them.”
