The city of Santa Clarita is discussing ways to help Bouquet Canyon business owners who say their shops and restaurants are struggling due to the road’s monthslong closure during construction of a new housing development.
Mayor Laurene Weste broached the topic with the city council during their regular meeting Tuesday evening about options to help the businesses that are struggling on the upper part of Bouquet Canyon Road near the road closures.
Before mentioning the issue, Weste talked about the City Council “going dark” for its normal summer meeting hiatus, and said she wanted to discuss the businesses that are being affected.
“So, I would like to ask the council if we could have our staff work with the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce to create a program to assist those businesses. There’s another six or seven months to go in completing that road and the construction on that highway,” said Weste.
She added that the businesses would need to provide documentation of their losses to prove they need the assistance to move through the gap.
“I have complete trust in our staff being able to put something together and working with the chamber, who works with all the businesses and community,” Weste added.
Weste proceeded to ask the council if they would “entertain the idea” and give the staff direction on what they could do.
The council approved a development agreement with Lennar in November 2020 for the project, which will add 375 attached and detached two-story homes. The problem for Bouquet Canyon Road business owners: In order to construct all those homes in a floodplain, the developer had to widen the area’s floodplain and said it needed to close Bouquet Canyon Road to traffic for nearly a year to do so.
The scheduled 11-month closure — from Benz Road to David Way, with Hobbs and Sue Court also being closed off to all but emergency vehicles — was enacted in February.
Mayor Pro Tem Patsy Ayala agreed with Weste that the council should consider doing something to help the businesses.
“I think we need to do more to help our businesses … this will be another initiative to have extra support for the businesses. So, yes,” Ayala said.
Councilwoman Marsha McLean asked Weste if she was talking about grant programs – saying if they open it up to some businesses, they must open it up to all businesses.
Weste said it was strictly for the people who are affected at the businesses on Bouquet Canyon Road. She added that it is not a grant opportunity for everyone.
“No, it’s just that other businesses are struggling as well,” McLean said.
Ayala chimed in and said that there are common practices with other government agencies, bringing up the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Agency’s business interruption fund.
“When something is (affected) for construction — so, this is a common practice with government agencies and chambers of commerce,” Ayala said.
McLean said that LA Metro has more money than the city does.
“Not that we don’t want to help those businesses, but we have to be careful,” McLean said.
Councilman Bill Miranda said he is OK with looking at possibilities if it comes back to the council before making final decisions.
Weste reassured him that would be the plan, but they would have to do some research, see who needs help and how the city can work with the chamber.
Miranda proposed that the chamber of commerce could be the lead on the program instead of the city – saying it is the function of the chamber of commerce to help businesses.
City Manager Ken Striplin said he and the staff could look at some options and bring them for the council’s consideration in September.
“I would prefer not to be directed to work with the chamber. I think there’s pros and cons, but to answer your question, from what I understand is, we’re not asking the chamber to give them money. We’re asking the city to come up with a grant program that would be city funded,” Striplin said.
Striplin added that they have asked the developer of the project for assistance on the programs – and the developer has not come forward or returned his calls.
“So, at this point, they have not been participative in terms of trying to come up with a solution to address that issue,” Striplin said.
The developer’s web page with information on the project and closure can be found at www.bouquetcanyonroad.com.
