A “high volume” of feedback on the Wiley Canyon Project is prompting city staff to ask the Santa Clarita City Council to expand the scope of the environmental impact report. A plan for the former Smiser Mule Ranch, off Wiley Canyon Road between Hawkbryn Avenue and Calgrove Boulevard, would bring a 379-unit mixed-use development and a senior living facility with another 217 units. An environmental impact report is required by law for most projects.
An EIR is a document prepared by various consultants who study how a project might negatively impact an area and where those impacts can be lessened, as well as alternatives. The Wiley Canyon plan has drawn dozens to Santa Clarita City Hall’s Planning Commission meetings for previous discussions of the project, so much so that staff is now asking the council to authorize spending a little more upfront to answer residents’ questions, which is ultimately paid for by the project’s developer. Tom Clark, the developer for the project, said he believes it’s bringing a world-class complex that will have a really beautiful entrance residents will be proud of, in addition to much-needed senior housing.
A series of public meetings he’s held on the project has not seemed to allay neighbors’ questions, which have ranged from what will happen to the mobile home park across the road, an issue the developer has said he doesn’t have plans for, to the circulation and traffic concerns that are common with any new development. What c.