The Santa Clarita City Council unanimously approved a new plan Tuesday for a housing development with hundreds of condo units and a quarter-acre of commercial development in Wiley Canyon.
The former home of the Smiser Mule Ranch between Wiley Canyon Road and Interstate 5, north of Calgrove Boulevard, is set to become home to 232 condos in two-story buildings, and 120 assisted-living units.
The assisted-living units are coming in a 140,000-square-foot facility, which would also have 9,000 square feet, or less than a quarter-acre, of commercial space. Eight of the homes are being planned as accessory dwelling units, a first of its kind, in terms of housing plans with ADUs, or granny flats, as part of the proposal.
City staff noted during the appeals process that the City Council would essentially have to approve the project, as its approval was necessitated by a state law that limits how many times a city can hold a hearing on the project.
Councilwoman Marsha McLean called this project “a thousand times” better than the original, but complained there was little the council could do under state law.
Tuesday represented the fifth discussion of the Wiley plan, following four Planning Commission meetings. During the initial hearings, there were so many questions and concerns from residents that planners required the project to expand the study of the plan’s environmental impact review and add a fifth alternative.
The concerns from residents focused on a handful of concerns, with the most often cited ones involving the Wiley Canyon Road design and its three roundabouts, which were widely panned by the project’s critics.
In addition to impacts to the region’s environment and wildlife, residents shared their concerns around traffic circulation.
Residents also shared dozens of complaints, which included the fact that the outcome of their appeal was considered predetermined.
The planned traffic improvements, however, also were stated as a potential boon to the project for residents living near the former ranch site who don’t have sidewalks and say the lack of infrastructure encourages people to frequently pull off the freeway and trash their neighborhood.
The project’s principal, Tom Clark of Royal Clark Development, said he worked with the city’s planners, and he appreciated their efforts in addressing all the feedback, which reduced the project’s construction footprint. The plan brought before the city called for nearly 600 units on the 31-acre property.
During the explanation of the project, city planners said the project could have applied for density bonuses that brought more than 1,200 units, and the original proposal had four-story buildings, which were also abandoned in the current plan.
Clark described the outreach for the plan as a six-year process that started with a group of more than 100 people in the Smiser Ranch barn, and dozens of subsequent meetings, which resulted in the project that was brought before the council.
“We reduced the project, and at the same time, we kept all the off-site improvements,” he said, referring to a 40% reduction in the project’s footprint.
The open space proposed on the site would total approximately 3 acres, or nearly 10% of the project’s area, which includes: 15,000 square feet for recreational amenities, like a community pool; a nearly 2-acre park; 16,850 square feet for the small lot, single-family development private yards; and 8,435 square feet for townhome private yards.
