Updated housing plan gets hearing
Community to get a chance to offer comments on planned construction of 820 new homes in Valencia
Plans to build 820 homes on the west side of San Francisquito Creek in Valencia have warranted a public hearing on the matter scheduled for Thursday evening.
Two decades ago, approval was given to housing developers BLC Tesoro LLC, for the construction of 1,791 homes to be built as part of the Tesoro Del Valle Project.
The developer, however, built only 1,077 of the approved homes and now wants to build the remaining 712 homes, plus an additional 108 homes.
Officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning scheduled the meeting Thursday in order to hear comments from the public about developer’s updated plan, called a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report, which includes “aesthetic and traffic impacts” the developer sees as “significant and unavoidable.”
The hearing is slated to begin at 6 p.m. at Tesoro Del Valle Elementary School at 29171 Bernardo Way, in Valencia.
The public has a chance to weigh-in on the development between now and April 12, deemed by planners as a “public comment and review
period.”
The developer is allowed to, and expected to, give a presentation and present testimony during Thursday’s hearing that supports applications made to the county to begin construction.
Bonus sought
Since the developer is adding more than 100 homes to the density of the project, BLC Tesoro is asking the county for a 21.2 percent “density bonus” if the company dedicates 365 units for sale to senior citizens through a Discretionary Housing Permit.
The housing project also calls for nine multi-family lots, 12 water quality basin lots, three water tank lots, one helipad lot, six senior recreation area lots, six linear park lots and nine private park lots, a senior recreation center, 29 lots reserved for open space and 24 private driveways.
The project is north of Avenida Rancho Tesoro, and would require moving more than 18 million cubic yards of earth at the hilly site overlooking the San Francisquito Creek.
The terrain is described by planners as having slopes of 20 percent and greater.
Eleven oak trees would be cut down for which the developer would need permission from Los Angeles County officials.
The approved development fits into the Santa Clarita Valley Area Plan drawn up in 1990, three years after the city of Santa Clarita came into being.
One Valley, One Vision
In 2000, officials for both the county and the city hammered out “One Valley, One Vision” in an effort to streamline the goals and objectives spelled out in both the County Area Plan and the city’s General Plan.
A lot has happened in 17 years since OVOV became the mantra of civic officials, including more than 40,000 homes between Valencia and the Kern County line.
Of those 40,000 homes, construction is moving ahead to see 21,000 homes built between the interstate and the Ventura County line as part of the Newhall Ranch project while plans to build more than 19,000 homes are being reviewed by planners.
Less than four miles from the Tesoro project is the location of the Northlake project which calls for close to 300 homes, 17 apartment buildings and half a dozen “multi-family” buildings for seniors in the Northlake area of Castaic.
Phased construction
The Tesoro project is to be built in 18 phases, with land devoted to open space created before anything else is built there.
The housing development will be accessed by a “main loop roadway”—this would be the second thing to be built.
Housing earmarked for senior citizens would be built after the main roadway.
Written testimony that is received prior to the public hearing will be made a part of the record and need not be read into the record.
The agenda package is available at the Department of Regional Planning Department, 320 West Temple Street, 13th Floor, Los Angeles, California 90012, and may be accessible on the Department’s website at www.planning.lacounty.gov.
Any meeting-related writings or documents provided to the Hearing Examiner after distribution of the agenda package, unless exempt from disclosure pursuant to California law, are available at the department and are also available in the hearing room on the day of the Hearing Examiner meeting regarding that matter.