KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave the green light Tuesday for the first phase of the Northlake housing development in Castaic.
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The board voted 4-0 to move forward, with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl abstaining from the vote.
“I do not support this,” Kuehl said.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the Fifth District where the development will be built, stressed the need for affordable housing.
“The main way we begin to tackle the affordability crisis in this county is to create more supply, and this project is a step in that direction,” Barger said.
The project has been on hold since 1992, and is now set to rise in the northern Santa Clarita Valley.
Developers are scheduled to build the Castaic community in two phases, which is set to be located north of Lake Hughes and Ridge Route Road, east of the I-5 freeway.
Related: Northlake Housing Development To Be Discussed By L.A. County Regional Planning Commission
Northlake will be built in an undeveloped region where about 3,150 residential units are set to be constructed within the 1,300-acre area, according to developers.
About 315 of these residential dwellings are expected to be set aside as affordable housing for low-income households, as well as for moderate-level incomes and senior citizens.
The remaining space would be for “mixed-use community commercial uses,” as well as parks, recreational facilities, a school and a fire station, according to the LA County Department of Regional Planning.
“We took ownership of the project in 2013 and immediately started working to make the project smarter, greener, more sustainable, less dense and less impactful to the environment,” said John Arvin, vice president of Northlake Associates LLC. “We have added solar energy and charging stations. We have added parks and trails and reclaimed water.”
In April 2018, the project was approved by the Regional Planning Commission, but was criticized by the Center for Biological Diversity, The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Golden State Environmental Justice Alliance.
“The housing development is set to ruin 1,000 acres of critically important habitat for imperiled animals in a wildfire-prone area of Santa Clarita Valley,” said Center for Biological Diversity officials in a statement.
And although developers vowed to create a community that would continue to take the environment into consideration, environmentalist did not back them on the project.
“The supervisors ignored their responsibility to protect communities and wildlife and support smart planning in Los Angeles County,” said Ross Middlemiss, a legal fellow at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Bulldozing creeks, evicting animals and creating more traffic congestion just aren’t the answer to California’s housing challenges.”
After the approval, the board directed its lawyers to draft the necessary documents to approve a parcel map and conditional use permit for the site.
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Thank you for showing MAPS!!! KUDOS TO YOU!!!
(The Signal always talks about new areas or approved areas or fires or other calamities, but hardly ever shows maps with the stories, so I am left wondering about where they heck they are talking about!)
Did Supervisor Sheila Kuehl happen to mention why she does not support this project?
LA County seeking to increase their tax revenues. I would like to know what Barger considers “affordable” for housing…affordable in SCV is far from affordable and building more only decreases affordability, not to mention increasing traffic congestion with roadways that are unable to adequately accommodate the current population. Imagine how traffic will be when accidents, fires, and/or snow come and shut down the 5 and the Old Road…
“Affordable housing” so close to the lake???
It must have been the smell of new money in the form of Taxes that swayed the vote.
This is just terrifying!!! Low income population means more pollution in the lake area. Super sad!
It is not affordable when people have to drive everywhere to work. And this kind of sprawl development only makes air pollution traffic and Greenhouse gases worse. Not to mention the impact to water supply. Oh well. We know the supervisors don’t know how to say no or even read the opposition letters to address the problems. We’re like lemmings running off a cliff. NO one will do anything until people start dying of the bad air or we run out of water. And then it will be too late.
The realtors should have to disclose on the sales brochure how long it will tak these folks to get to their jobs in commuter traffic. If 2 hours is too long for you, don’t buy here!
How about the gutless supervisor who disagreed with this project so she abstained from voting. Why, and why draw a paycheck from taxpayers? I hope the BOS get their money’s worth cause I don’t want to hear later about conserving water because of a drought if they think it’s ok to approve new water stealing communities… Also, the I 5 fwy is absolutely horrible now, just wait.
How do we get these “leaders” to stop this building madness. The consequences are obvious even though they will take place in the future. Does anyone know how we can prevent these civil “leaders” from doing this?