Residents asking for affordable-housing policy, e-bike regulations or the Bouquet Canyon Road closure will have to wait until at least September for Santa Clarita City Council action, based on the agenda released this week.
But, the council will return from its hiatus to take up an issue that could impact the way all future development looks in the city — and Santa Clarita’s level of control over it — as part of a broader running battle between state mandates and individual cities’ authority to govern development.
Tuesday’s council meeting agenda calls for objective design standards to be the topic of the City Council’s first public hearing following the council’s one-month summer hiatus.
The new design standards being talked about for multifamily and mixed-use residential housing are about more than just aesthetics for city officials, who have had public meetings with City Council members since May on the topic.
During a May 1 Development Committee meeting, a senior planner explained the goal as a way for the city’s Planning Division to retain regulation over local development, while state laws continually look for ways to remove that control — in order to address a state housing shortage.
State lawmakers have cited local governments as one of the biggest obstacles to more housing being built, as “builders find themselves unable to meet that demand because of local rules that limit the number of units or simply prohibit building altogether,” according to a Senate floor analysis for the state’s Housing Crisis Act of 2019.
On more than one recent project discussion, city officials have said, “Our hands are tied,” citing the fact that the Wiley Cayon project’s approval was prompted by a five-meeting limit the state sets, the same laws for responsible for the erosion of local special standards districts, and why the city wasn’t able to respond with any issues regarding objective design standards during the approval of the controversial Hartwell project.
Objective design standards might not be able to address the hearing count, but it can help create more local control, according to city officials.
“The first objective is to try to ensure that the quality of the architecture coming in the projects is maintained and meets the standards of the City Council,” Senior Planner Dave Peterson said in May. And the second objective, he said: “to try to embed as much authority with the city for these projects’ review as we can.”
Peterson also said that by creating a program, the city “checks the box” for the state, which is a requirement if the city would like to have any standards, and it also gives the city flexibility in its review process, including an opt-out clause for developers.
In front of the Development Committee, both Peterson and City Attorney Joe Montes have said it’s the only way the city can try and keep future residential construction somewhat consistent with its current standards going forward. Peterson described it as a mechanism for the city to have Canyon Country, Valencia, Newhall and Saugus each with a distinctive feel.
Jason Crawford, director of community development for the city of Santa Clarita, said after that meeting that the “current architectural standards are called the Community Character and Design Guidelines,” which he said the state would consider “subjective.”
“The work we have been doing is to turn the subjectivity into objective design standards that we can enforce to ensure that projects have high-quality design,” he wrote in an email.
Peterson said that, during an outreach meeting with builders, their biggest ask was that the new standards not make it exponentially more expensive to build. He also said they looked forward to a more predictable review-and-approval process.
The city is expected to have a first hearing on the proposals Tuesday, with a chance for the public and council members to weigh in on them.
Other priorities
City Manager Ken Striplin has said the fall would include the stated goal of tackling e-bike regulations, as residents have repeatedly pressed the council for action.
Striplin has repeatedly listed the actions the city has taken, which have included educational outreach and additional enforcement, but said the staff will study the issue and bring back more of an “accountability” component to the city’s future rules.
The city’s affordable-housing policy contract calls for the city’s consultant, HR&A Advisors, to bring back an “Affordable Housing Strategy and Developer Grant Program Guidelines” by Dec. 31, with a “City Council presentation prepared in January 2027.” City staff identified spring as the discussion date in a recent agenda packet.
The city staff has not given a timeline for when a grant program to support businesses impacted by the City Council’s closure of Bouquet Canyon Road might be available. Mayor Laurene Weste said last month it would be a top priority for the council.
