A local environmentalist group Tuesday announced its appeal of the Department of Regional Planning’s approval of more than 500 homes in the unincorporated west side of the Santa Clarita Valley.
The project is looking to fulfill a major need for housing in the region by putting 510 homes west of The Old Road and south of Sagecrest Circle near Stevenson Ranch, according to developer Jonathan Frankel, who also said there will be dozens of “attainably priced” homes, at the July 30 hearing.
“This is a 510-unit project being built in the Wildland Urban Interface in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone with a density bonus for inclusion of affordable senior housing,’’ wrote the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment in its appeal.
The plan puts hundreds of seniors in this “dangerous wildfire area,” and the nearest fire station is about 3 miles away, according to a news release from Lynne Plambeck, president of SCOPE.
“Our seniors deserve affordable housing, but it also must be safe housing. We want to know how seniors with possible mobility issues will get down from the fourth floor in a Power Safety Shutoff with no lights and no elevators,” Plambeck wrote.
New Urban West is looking to develop several SCV properties, including the former Whittaker-Bermite site near the center of the SCV, the Belcaro senior community in Valencia and another Belcaro community that’s being planned for Canyon Country.
The developer touted millions spent on fire safety during its presentation to the county Regional Planning Department, which signed off on the project last month.
County planning officials who recommended approval of the project said at the July 30 hearing that “the project was designed with fire resiliency in mind,” adding there are two public streets connecting to the project to The Old Road.
Frankel said the area was originally approved for more than 630 homes, but the developers have worked with county planners to bring that number to where it’s at now.
He also said two of his employees lost their homes in recent wildfires, which is why the development was taking numerous steps: “creating defensible space via a new 28-foot, fully paved fire access road on the perimeter of the project, points of ingress and egress, utilizing ignition-resistant construction techniques, incorporating noncombustible building materials and providing new water infrastructure that ensures water availability for our first responders.”
