The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to give their support to the latest CEMEX development and move ahead on the Vista Canyon project at their regular meeting on Tuesday, May 10.

A Thumbs Up for McKeon, Boxer and Feinstein on CEMEX

The city council legislative committee is recommending the council support Senate Bill  S.759, the Soledad Canyon High Desert, California Public Lands Conservation and Management Act of 2011.

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This bill is a collaborative effort between the City of Santa Clarita, CEMEX, City of Victorville, County of San Bernardino and Senator Barbara Boxer to resolve the 12-year-old dispute between the City of Santa Clarita and CEMEX.

The United States Bureau of Land Management has issued two, 10-year consecutive contracts to CEMEX, USA for purposes of mining 56,000,000 tons net of sand and gravel in the Soledad Canyon area, immediately east of the City of Santa Clarita. The proposed mining site involves surface estate owned by the City of Santa Clarita, with sub-surface mineral rights owned by the BLM.

S. 759 provides the Secretary of Interior with a mechanism to cancel the two contracts between BLM and CEMEX in Soledad Canyon, while providing fair compensation to CEMEX, in recognition of the value of the contracts. Upon enactment of the bill, the Secretary of Interior is directed to immediately cancel the two contracts between BLM and CEMEX.

City documents state the belief that in the absence of the legislation being enacted during the 112th session of Congress, it is likely that CEMEX will move forward with securing the remaining state and regional permits necessary to enable the mine to become operative.

For more on the city’s position on S.759 click here.

Santa Clarita’s First Transit-Oriented Neighborhood

If advanced by the Santa Clarita City council, a 4-story hotel, a theatre, and a new Metrolink station are on the way in Canyon Country as part of the city’s first transit-oriented neighborhood.

Interim Planning Manager Jeff Hogan explained the importance of the proposed Metrolink Station:

“The Vista Canyon station is a significant component to this project to create an urban village. We’re going to have Vista anchored at the end of a Town Center along the retail and commercial center.”

The Vista Canyon development is a 185 acre project site. It will have 1,100 residential units with up to 950,000 square feet of non-residential commercial-retail. In addition to the four-story hotel and theatre there will be an office center with 150,000 square feet of commercial retail space.

Of the 1,100 residential units approximately 70 will be single family and the remaining will be multi-family apartments and condos for both purchase and rental.

Plans include a 10-acre park, plus 75 acres of open space, which includes the Santa Clara river.

And on the job front, city officials expect between 2,000 and 4,000 jobs to be created.

On April 26, the Santa Clarita City Council certified the Vista Canyon April 2011 Final Environmental Report and approved the Vista Canyon and Ancillary Annexation Areas.

These annexation areas, Fair Oaks Ranch, Jakes Way, and portions of Sand Canyon, are currently part of Los Angeles County, but not incorporated Santa Clarita.

Also on April 26, the City Council introduced and passed two ordinances to a second reading. The ordinances consist of pre-zoning the Vista Canyon project site to Specific Plan and the Ancillary Annexation Areas to Specific Plan, Business Park, Residential Medium, Open Space, and Residential Estate.

Following approval of the second reading, the city will file their project with LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission) which could take up to a year to process.

Construction would not be expected to begin before spring or summer of 2012.

For more details on the Vista Canyon project click here.