The L.A. County Regional Planning Commission is reviewing a staff recommendation next week to approve the permits and tract map for Homestead South, a development of more than 3,600 homes, just south of State Route 126 and the Santa Clara River, about 2 miles west of Interstate 5.
The July 29 project hearing in front of the Regional Planning Commission is for one of five “villages” imagined by The Newhall Land and Farming Co. as part of the Newhall Ranch Specific Plan, which is now known as FivePoint Valencia.
The community calls for a total of 3,617 homes on 1,752 acres, an area nearly four times the size of Disneyland (~510 acres), or twice the size of Central Park in New York (843 acres).
A request for comment from Hunsaker & Associates, which is representing FivePoint as the project’s applicant, was referred to FivePoint. An email to FivePoint was not immediately returned Tuesday.
The breakdown of those homes would come from a variety of neighborhoods, mostly in 50 multifamily lots that would have 3,051 detached and attached residential condominium, townhouse and apartment units within 1,013 buildings.
There also would be 566 single-family lots and several hundred affordable housing units would also be considered for the multifamily portion.
In compliance with L.A. County’s housing ordinance, approximately 10% of the units, or 362 homes, are scheduled to be built as affordable.
The permits being requested for the project also mentioned the addition of an elementary school, middle school and a high school for the community, and approximately 1,058 acres of open space, parks and trails, including the approximately 67-acre Grapevine Mesa spineflower preserve located within the Mesas West portion of the project site.
Environmentalists have already raised concerns for more study on the project, due to its proximity to the riparian habitat. A county official said Tuesday that some of the project’s studies, including a traffic report, were updated earlier this year.
The project’s principal planner, Alejandrina Baldwin, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday regarding the status of the studies on the project, including traffic analyses. The land being discussed for the project is currently vacant, with “limited agricultural use,” according to project documents.
The Homestead South Project will be accessible from Long Canyon Road to the north and Magic Mountain Parkway to the west, and the plans ask the county to authorize the extension, realignment and expansion of Magic Mountain Parkway and Long Canyon Road, which are both secondary highways on the county’s master plan, according to the project description.
Due to the project’s location south of the Santa Clara River, the project is not scheduled for presentation to the Castaic Area Town Council, despite its proximity to the community, according to Bob Lewis, president of the town council, who said he checked when he saw the notice.
The council is currently discussing questions raised last month regarding the Entrada North plan, which calls for 1,150 homes west of The Old Road and south of State Route 126.
That plan is expected to be discussed again by the town council next month, with input from the developer, Lewis said Tuesday.
According to L.A. County planners, the Newhall Ranch Specific Plan, which was adopted May 27, 2003, envisions “the changes in society and economy that may occur over the 25-year buildout of the community,” according to the plan’s county webpage. The total plan, now referred to as FivePoint of Valencia, included more than 21,500 homes when it was approved more than 20 years ago.
The plans have been the subject of a number of legal battles, including what environmentalists describe as a “landmark” decision in the “Newhall Ranch case,” the Center for Biological Diversity v. California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
That lawsuit was settled in a 2015 decision from the California Supreme Court, which found the county’s initial environmental studies for the project were inadequate. That ultimately resulted in FivePoint of Valencia creating more than a dozen mitigation efforts intended to ensure the project had a “net-zero” impact on greenhouse gases. The creation of a spineflower reserve was also a result of the suit.
The Regional Planning Commission discussion is scheduled for 9 a.m. in Downtown Los Angeles and can be attended virtually using the following link: https://bit.ly/ZOOM-RPC, using the ID no. 858 6032 6429.
