Placerita Canyon residents, upset that the city is not enforcing restrictions on The Master’s University’s growth plans, are sending a legal threat letter over their concerns.
The letter circulated on social media asking residents to join in pressuring the city to “take immediate action to enforce the single-family residential zoning codes.”
The residents are upset that The Master’s University has expanded its student population significantly over the past decade, and they argue that the university has created safety concerns within the neighborhood’s small, increasingly crowded streets intended for an equestrian community.
City of Santa Clarita officials are expected to release their formal comments on TMU’s master-plan amendment later this month, according to a source familiar with the situation.
In the meantime, TMU has said the campus is focused on being a good neighbor to canyon residents.
“We love the canyon and are deeply grateful to have called it home for more than 60 years,” according to a statement sent via text from TMU spokesman Mason Nesbitt. “All of our student housing operates within city guidelines, and our focus is on being a good neighbor by: (1) meeting regularly with (Placerita Canyon Property Owners Association) leadership to maintain open dialogue, (2) continuing to partner with city leadership regarding student housing, (3) sharing with neighbors the standards we hold our students to, and (4) giving students opportunities to serve and meet the practical needs of neighbors through things like car washes, yard work and hanging Christmas lights.”
A 2022 letter from TMU’s lawyers at Donahoe Young & Williams states the students are not in violation of the area’s standards as a group of “thoroughly screened and vetted group of socially responsible and academically successful achievers.”
The correspondence was spurred in part by residents’ questions about student housing at the time. The city’s solution was the Regional High Occupancy Permit program, which residents say is being taken advantage of.
“The goal of preserving the characteristics of the Placerita Canyon residential area as a semirural quiet enclave is not at all jeopardized by TMU students residing in the neighborhood,” the letter from DY&W states. “Indeed, such a goal would be advanced by allowance of the housing.”
Residents have said their primary concern is not the students, whom most refer to as “good kids,” although PCPOA members have said canyon traffic speeds should be a regular fall lesson for new students.
Residents say the problem has been that there’s been no check on the population growth, which has created several potential problems.
City support
Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda has been openly supportive of the university’s plans to expand. He’s previously praised the deceased former President John Macarthur’s legacy, told residents who complained previously he doesn’t like the word “in perpetuity” when it comes to special standards districts, and wore a TMU cap on the dais during a previous meeting.
In response to questions about the legal claims in the online letter, city officials referred to their own municipal code, which puts little restriction on a Regional High-Occupancy Permit and allows them while the permits are under review.
“The city has received 25 RHOP applications for the 25/26 academic year, and is actively reviewing the applications,” according to an email Monday from Planning Manager Patrick Leclair. “None have been approved at this time.”
Another part of the neighbors’ concerns about the RHOP program is that, per city statute, according to an email from city officials this week, there are no limits on how many students can live in one of the houses.
“There is not a maximum number of RHOPs that can be issued, nor is there a maximum number of persons that can live in an RHOP, as long as it is permitted and meets all the requirements of the permit including providing adequate parking,” according to an email from Jason Crawford, director of community development.
Sending a message
In the past, the city has taken PCPOA support, or at least a lack of formal protest from the association, as a sign that residents have been happy with the plans.
PCPOA President Teresa Todd said there was an association meeting Monday, which included the discussion of a recent meeting with city and TMU officials.
“I know that people are getting frustrated because TMU has such an impact within the canyon,” Todd said Tuesday. Handwritten protest signs were seen in some parts of the neighborhood ahead of the meeting.
TMU has submitted an application that’s considered incomplete for its master-plan amendment while it’s being reviewed by the city planners, Todd said in a phone interview Tuesday.
She said the city expects to complete its staff comments to TMU’s plans by Nov. 20, which was part of the discussion at Monday’s meeting.
TMU originally had a 2009 master plan approved for a major expansion, which was then extended to 2019. After circulation concerns were raised, TMU was told it would need to resubmit its plan and await Dockweiler Drive’s extension, which was done as a city-TMU partnership.
Todd said she couldn’t comment on the letter on behalf of the PCPOA, because the letter wasn’t presented to the group. But with respect to the state housing laws mentioned, she said she wasn’t clear on their application to the canyon’s situation.
TMU plans
The construction and expansion are being planned as part of TMU’s 100th anniversary for 2027, according to plans that have been filed with the city, but that timeline has already been called into question based on the speed things have moved so far.
City records from February describe 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.”
The plans haven’t indicated a new student-population cap or how the RHOP program might fit into the existing campus housing that students are offered from Placerita Canyon homes owned by Grace Community Church.
Concern
One resident, who asked not to be identified, said there’s been an increased effort by the PCPOA to address some of residents’ concerns, but there was a demand for more communication and information about any push for more rules and regulations.
Their recent letter on student housing is about letting everyone know the residents mean business, the person said, regardless of any ongoing discussions. The person said they had concerns about retaliation for speaking against the plans.
Mitchell Landau, a Placerita Canyon resident with several of the RHOP homes on his block, said one reason he’s supporting the online letter is because the neighborhood group is not doing enough.
He said his post sharing the letter was about looking for neighbors to join him in his “own peaceful action,” which he acknowledged over the phone could end up in a courtroom.
“Basically, everybody knows that there’s certain rules and regulations that the city is not enforcing when it comes to the school, and we’re going to make them,” Landau said, adding it’s not just property owners in Placerita who could be impacted, mentioning other special zoning areas, including Sand Canyon.
He is hoping a large group of his neighbors will fill out his online form letter and send it to the city to let the City Council know they’re upset.
“The whole end result that we’re all looking for is to try to maintain the serenity and the beauty of this special standards district for future generations,” said the resident who wished to remain unidentified, and then added rhetorically, “What happens when they want to add a football team?”
