The L.A. County Regional Planning Commission approved Wednesday The Trails at Lyons Canyon, a plan for 510 homes on the west side of the Santa Clarita Valley.
The developer, New Urban West, is looking at several projects in the SCV that could bring close to 7,000 homes, including the development of the Sunridge property and MetroWalk.
The developer’s latest project is looking to put homes west of The Old Road and south of Sagecrest Circle near Stevenson Ranch.
The real boon to the area with this project, according to Jonathan Frankel, a New Urban West vice president working on the project, is that it will help the county in an area where it has fallen well short of its goals over the past few years: attainable housing.
“We know that housing affordability remains the leading challenge in our entire region, and the project works to meet this challenge head on, include 71 affordable homes, and that exceeds the county’s on-site inclusionary housing requirement by nearly 300%, nearly three times what is otherwise required,” Frankel told county planners.
“And to put our commitment to on-site affordable housing in some context for you, since 2021, Los Angeles County has issued building permits for just 20 moderate income homes, and that represents 0.1 — one-tenth of 1% — of the regional housing needs allocation in this income category,” he said. “The Lyons Canyon project alone provides more missing middle-income housing than the entire county has produced in the last four years.”
Another stat Frankel touted for the project: It will preserve 1.25 acres of open space for every housing unit.
The affordable units based on today’s median income estimates would be priced at approximately $400,000, Frankel said.
The project also includes 47 very low-income, senior-affordable rental units that are set aside at 50% of the adjusted median income, as part of a density bonus request so the project receives benefits such as modifications to the applicable design standards.
The project faced opposition from those who enjoy hiking in the portion of pristine open space on the property that would be developed in the plan.
Michael Ramos, a Santa Clarita resident, said he gathered more than 100 signatures at a trailhead on the property, and nearly 600 more names online.
“This project will remove native oak trees and degrade the sensitive habitat corridor that supports diverse wildlife,” Ramos said, adding there were other, more suitable locations for the homes.
The nearest fire station is approximately 2.5 miles away, which was a concern mentioned by residents.
Frankel acknowledged Wednesday the plan was in a very high fire severity zone, but mentioned two items he said were relevant: The county already is aggressively pushing for a rebuild in the areas of Altadena and the Palisades, which were burned by wildfires earlier this year; and as part of the commitment to public safety, New Urban West is spending millions on the project specifically for fire-safety plans.
In addition to The Trails, New Urban West is trying to develop Sunridge, which would add 6,500 homes to the middle of the SCV on a property formerly known as Whittaker-Bermite; and MetroWalk, a 20-acre lot off Lost Canyon Road, which is being planned for nearly 500 homes next to Vista Canyon.
Lynne Plambeck, president of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment, mentioned that same rebuild effort for the Eaton and Palisades fire, saying the fires’ $30 billion cleanup cost to the county since January was reason enough not to make the same building decisions.
Former state Sen. Scott Wilk, now a Building Industry Association of Southern California lobbyist, said the ‘balanced, thoughtful project” was needed to hit local housing goals.
“We’re already halfway through the eight-year cycle,” Wilk said, referring to the state’s once-a-decade regional housing needs assessment, which guides how many homes are to be built in an area. “The county’s charged with 90,000 new housing units, and last time I checked, we were at 5.7% (of that figure) in unincorporated L.A. County. Projects like The Trails at Lyons Canyon will play a vital role in helping the county make meaningful progress towards those numbers.”
The project’s approval is final pending any appeal to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
