Placerita Canyon residents expressed no desire to wait until “sometime next year” to address their concerns about The Master’s University, but city officials said last week there wasn’t much they could do in the meantime.
City Manager Ken Striplin has been hearing residents’ concerns for years regarding the growth of The Master’s University, saying at the City Council’s Dec. 9 meeting that TMU was planning to bring a master plan revision to the City Council.
He told the council he understands the issues being raised, but he also said the city’s pending review of TMU’s amended master plan was the appropriate way to have the university “at the table,” in terms of negotiating a change.
“I understand (the concerns), but they’ve got to be wrapped into the specific plan of what is going to be approved ultimately, in that specific plan, and how can we, in that process, try to limit and address these issues as best we can within the authorities and jurisdiction that we have at that point in time,” Striplin said.
Placerita Canyon residents like Linda Townsley repeatedly told the council about their concerns about how their equestrian special standards district is being taken over, as a resident with two and soon to be three homes that have residential high-occupancy permits on her block.
Councilwoman Marsha McLean expressed sympathy with the frustration that residents shared.
“If I were living in that canyon, I would be extremely upset, especially since it’s a safety issue and having to wait to hear something next year, when it seems like this stuff is going on with speeding and safety issues,” she said. “Is there nothing we can do, to kind of monitor that, to see what’s actually happening out there?”
Striplin said some of the roads in question are privately owned and maintained, which limits what the city can do.
TMU did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but in November, a spokesman said TMU is grateful to have called the canyon home for the past 60 years, and it operates within city guidelines with a focus on being a good neighbor through a number of ways.
Striplin has cited concerns raised by TMU in terms of where the city can limit TMU in terms of housing laws, particularly in light of some recent rulings and state laws on housing.
That also was a question brought up by McLean, who asked Striplin what controls the city has over what goes on in the housing, to which he said, “minimal.”
“We cannot say they can only have five people or six people,” Striplin said, “between their educational exemptions as well as federal housing laws, we cannot dictate how many people can live in that house,” he said.
Mitchell Landau, who posted a letter online last month with resident concerns, which also cited housing laws, said he wasn’t surprised by the latest response from the city to their concerns, which he considered dismissive.
“So, that’s exactly what was needed to go to the next step, right?” Landau said in a phone conversation Friday, adding the goal was to avoid litigation. “So, that’s where we’re at right now, because (the city) did send out a letter to everybody saying, ‘You’re wrong. That’s not what’s going on.’ So, now we can move on to the next step.”
The city has not yet identified a date for when TMU’s master-plan amendment would be brought forth for formal review.
