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 city officials didn’t expect, according to the council’s agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, was the volume of the noise from residents’ concerns. “The original proposal for the preparation of the EIR assumed that no more than 100 individual comments would be received on the draft EIR,” according to a report prepared by Erika Iverson, the city’s lead planner on the project.
“Following the close of the public review and the Planning Commission hearing on March 19, over 500 individual comments were identified.” As a result of the feedback, the city is suggesting the consultant might need up to another $100,000 to fully address the questions received by residents. The site plan has also changed somewhat in response to the feedback, according to Iverson’s report, so the city will need to also have the consultants study any impacts they might have.
The Planning Commission continued the hearing process to a date uncertain while the applicant finalizes the site plan and addresses requests for more information from the Planning Commission, according to city officials..
