The L.A. County Department of Regional Planning is expected next week to hold another hearing as part of a court order from lawsuits over the Northlake Specific Plan, for a community that’s been talked about for decades in Castaic.
As of the most recent count, Castaic had about 5,800 households, which would make the latest update for the 1992 Northlake Specific Plan significant for the community, bringing in more than 3,000 new homes.
The Regional Planning Commission could bring a major phase of the long-awaited project much closer to reality by giving it a final approval Wednesday.
County planners are holding a hearing for the Recirculated Partial Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report as part of a court order from a legal challenge to the project brought by environmental groups, regarding the 1,300-acre plan.
The first phase in the recirculated report called for 2,295 homes, commercial development, open space and parks, roadways, a school pad, and a fire station across 720 acres. The project is considered north of Castaic, east of Interstate 5, west of Castaic Lake and surrounded by the Angeles National Forest to the west, north and east.
The project’s developer, Tim DiPrima of Woodridge Capital Partners, called it “a thoughtfully planned community” that will deliver public benefits such as a new fire station, a new school site and an extensive system of parks, trails and open space, in an email Friday from project spokesman John Musella.
“Just as importantly, Northlake will provide much-needed housing for working families, helping support local businesses in Castaic by bringing new residents, customers, and economic vitality to the community. The homes at Northlake will include 440 age-restricted senior housing units and 315 affordable housing units, 95 of which will be age-restricted senior housing.”
Representatives for the Castaic community mentioned concerns at a meeting this week due to how long ago much of the project was approved, particularly in light of the recent gas-main blowout that prompted evacuations in the area.
“The one thing that has changed from the time that they put out their notification is what happened to the pipeline and looking at pipeline safety,” Castaic Town Council President Bob Lewis said, referring to the recent gas main rupture in Castaic. “I certainly would make a recommendation for us to ask them to re-look at what they’re doing before approving it, in relation to the pipeline issues, and how that could impact the Northlake project.”
Chris Dittes, one of the town council’s two elected representatives for the region that includes the planning area, mentioned several concerns about the project during the council’s agendized discussion of it on Wednesday.
He said with the bulk of the project’s studies and approvals being more than 30 years old — the county circulated a partial report due to the court order — he had concerns about the project’s approvals and the data behind the justifications for them. He mentioned geologic and seismic studies specifically.
He said there were several aspects that should have triggered a more thorough environmental review, including the addition of more than 200 units of affordable housing. He also said changes in the methodology for how traffic studies are completed have rendered the studies for the project obsolete.
The second phase calls for the development of more than 800 single-family homes, parks, trails, open space, school uses, and associated roadway and infrastructure improvements across 545 acres.
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved the project in April 2019, and then several environmental groups filed suit that May, which sparked a yearslong legal battle.
The court ruling found problems with the environmental review, including an inadequate look at: creek avoidance; the western spadefoot toad habitat impacts; and improper deferred mitigation as to rare plants, according to notes for the county review recirculated in December.
The Northlake Specific Plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on June 1, 1992. At that time it called for the development of up to 2,337 single-family dwellings on 504.8 acres, 1,286 multi-family units on 95.5 acres, an 18-hole golf course; 169,884 square feet of commercial uses; 545,589 square feet of light industrial uses; a public library; two school/park sites; and 476.4 acres of open space.
The public hearing is scheduled to happen at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Hall of Records in Downtown Los Angeles.
