Two environmental agencies are once again trying to stop the final approval of a housing project that will drastically alter the landscape of north Castaic with about 2,300 more homes.
The L.A. County Department of Regional Planning is scheduled to hold an appeal hearing March 24 after the Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, or SAFER, and the Center for Biological Diversity raised concerns about the vehicle travel, a failure to study the jobs impact of the project, and that new information about local wildlife impacts aren’t considered.
Some of the concerns are shared between the two groups, but both paid the $1,800 appeal fee to be heard next week.
The Northlake Specific Plan has changed significantly through several developers over more than three decades, with each iteration being changed slightly by planners and evolving market demands, which have morphed the original 1992 plan to what was approved by the county’s Regional Planning Department in January.
On Jan. 29, the regional planners held a hearing for a recirculated partial final supplemental environmental impact report, which was part of a court order for the project after a previous lawsuit.
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 site is north of Castaic, east of Interstate 5, west of Castaic Lake and surrounded by the Angeles National Forest to the west, north and east.
But the appellants said the county failed to look at multiple significant impacts in this latest report, which also was a concern mentioned by more than one Castaic Area Town Council member during a recent discussion of the project.
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 a previous email 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.”
Part of the delay in the plan’s approval was a reconfiguration after the last county review, which called for the inclusion of affordable housing.’
The Center for the Biological Diversity said the county’s supplemental review is inadequate in a number of ways, with scathing criticism for the “zombie” project first submitted decades ago.
“This zombie project from the early ’90s is the worst kind of sprawl,” said Evan Levy, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It would put residents in a high-fire risk area and pave over a vital creek, western spadefoot habitat and hundreds of acres of wildflower fields. It’s also incredibly disappointing that this development is still proposing to sever critical pathways that mountain lions and other wildlife need to move across L.A. County. We beat the development once in court and are appealing approval of this current version because the project’s long list of harmful impacts violates California’s environmental laws.”
The agency also shared a number of concern letters from several other agencies, including the Endangered Habitats League, the Science and Collaboration for Connected Wildlands and the Mountains and Recreation and Conservation Authority.
“SAFER requests that the Planning Commission deny approving this project, and instead, direct staff to address these shortcomings in a revised recirculated partial draft supplemental environmental impact report prior to considering approvals for the project,” according to its appeal.
The Department of Regional Planning is scheduled to hear the appeal of the project in Downtown Los Angeles at 9 a.m. March 24.
The project documents are available at case.planning.lacounty.gov/case/view/tr073336.
