Residents get chance to weigh in on Tesoro del Valle housing plans
Santa Clarita Valley residents get another chance to weigh in on plans to add 820 homes to Tesoro del Valle when the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission meets Wednesday.
The public hearing begins at 9 a.m. Aug. 1, in Room 150 of the Hall of Records, 320 West Temple St., in Los Angeles.
John Musella, spokesman for the Bristol Land Co., the developer, said there are a number of things residents should keep in mind about the commission’s hearing.
“The Highlands is the second and final phase of the approved Tesoro del Valle master-planned community,” he said Friday.
“The L.A. County Regional Planning Commission will be reviewing the revised tentative tract map, which reduces the total development footprint of the original plans by 62 percent,” he said. “As a result, the Highlands now includes 1,000
acres of open space and 22 miles of trails.
“It also creates nine new parks, two community gardens and two new resident recreation centers,” he said. “And, in response to market demand, of the 820 planned homes, 45 percent will be agequalified homes.”
Other aspects of the project that are expected to be reviewed by the commissioners Wednesday include the amount of grading required for the two recreation centers and the removal of oak trees from the property.
With regards to the recreation centers, the developer has applied to the county for a conditional use permit that would allow grading of more than 100,000 cubic yards of earth for that aspect of the project.
As well, the developer seeks a permit to cut down 11 oak trees and permission to encroach into the protected zone of one additional oak tree.
Wednesday’s public hearing is the commission’s latest effort to hear from the community on the project.
In March, more than 50 people showed up to a public hearing about the proposal.
Many of those voicing opposition to the project focused their attention on the impact that 820 homes would have on what many residents described as an already harrowing experience driving in and out of Tesoro.
The project is planned to be built northwest of the existing Tesoro community, north of Copper Hill Drive — opposite the Albertsons shopping center.
The Highlands 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 and a senior recreation center.
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.