The Santa Clarita Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a hearing schedule for the Wiley Canyon Mixed-Use Plan, which city staff said was the third of five possible hearings that Santa Clarita can hold for a project under state law.
The schedule, which brings a new plan back to the commission for next month’s Planning Commission meeting Sept. 16, was approved with a 4-0 vote. The commission currently has one vacancy.
Formerly known as the Smiser Ranch, the plans for property west of Wiley Canyon Road, between Calgrove Boulevard and Hawkbryn Avenue, have seen several iterations and received more than 500 comments after the project’s first two hearings, according to city officials.
However, under the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, the city only has two more opportunities to review the plan before approval is mandated, if the project meets the city’s objective standard, which city staff said it did.
That’s a reason cited for the staff recommendation to approve a schedule that called for a Planning Commission review of a fifth alternative next month.
The project’s developer, Tom Clark, said a 40% reduction in density and several traffic improvements allow more access to the surrounding neighborhoods in an attempt to address concerns from the neighbors.
The new alternative would consist of 45 detached single-family units, eight of which would be attached accessory dwelling units; and 179 townhome units, according to city officials.
The fifth alternative would eliminate the independent senior living units and change the senior living facility to 120 rooms for assisted-living residents, according to the plan. The project would also retain a commercial component of approximately 9,000 square feet, an increase of roughly 86 square feet.
While the plan had its share of lingering critics, there was significant positive feedback on the revisions and Clark’s efforts to change the development in response to concerns.
Julie Benson, a longtime resident who grew up in the area, spoke in support of the project.
“Would we all prefer that it stay the way it is, with no development and just a wide-open field — most would say yes, and I would agree,” Benson said during public comment, and then adding, “but that’s not realistic.”
The question, she said, is if this project is the right one, and she now thinks it is, saying she was speaking on behalf of a neighboring community association for The Oaks. She was appreciative that the project was keeping the traffic improvements, including several roundabouts and trail improvements.
The residents opposed to the project cited those roundabouts as part of the circulation problem, also mentioning fire safety concerns and the issue of public notice.
The circulation and fire safety worry was related for some, who felt the addition of three roundabouts near the entrance to the project would slow any first responders. That emergency-response concern, the critics said, was compounded by the county’s recent approval of The Trails at Lyons Canyon.
The community, near an unincorporated area of more than 500 homes off Sagecrest Circle, was approved earlier this month and is not required to build a fire station. Jeff Ford, a Newhall resident and former Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency board member, said in that neighborhood, the projected response times are already at the maximum allowable eight minutes.
Erika Iverson, the senior city planner on the project, said the staff was aware of the nearby approval from the county when the fire safety element was studied.
The issue of a Spanish-language notice for residents of the neighboring Mulberry Mobile Home Park on Hawkbryn Avenue was once again brought up.
Assistant City Attorney Karl Berger stated that as the next discussion would be a publicly noticed meeting, neither the city nor developer has a requirement to post a notice in Spanish for the proceedings.
The beginning of the hearing also hit a brief delay when neighborhood resident and local contractor Weston Monroe got up to the podium before the start and declared the proceedings unlawful, saying he had pictures of the project’s publicly posted notices on the property being torn down and not properly displayed.
He argued that constituted a lack of legal notice and said the hearing could not proceed.
“Nothing can go forward tonight. I’m holding the lock under your own municipal code,” Monroe said from the public comment podium.
“Weston, I don’t want to have to cut the mic,” said commission Chair Lisa Eichman. “I was nice enough to let you stand up, so let’s go sit back down.”
Berger later said the semi-full council chambers with residents commenting on the project was evidence of proper notice.
