Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment has filed an appeal of the Lyons Canyon Project to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The appeal was filed with the Los Angeles County Executive Office at 1:30 p.m., Aug. 11, within the designated appeal period.
Formed in 1987 by local residents, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment is the longest-standing local planning and conservation group in the Santa Clarita Valley. SCOPE's stated mission is to focus on good planning and on protecting the Santa Clara River, the Santa clarita Valley's oak resource, along with water and air quality in the SCV.
The 510-unit Trails at Lyons Canyon Project will be built in the Wildland Urban Interface in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone with a density bonus for inclusion of affordable senior housing.
It will destroy 318 (projected numbers vary) protected trees in a significant ecological area adjacent to Towsley Park.
Most housing will be placed in the designated flood plain at the mouth of Lyons Canyon. It also represents yet another inconclusion into habitat of the Southern California Mountain Lion.
SCOPE officials said the nonprofit is especially concerned that this developer received a density bonus allowing the company to build almost twice what would otherwise be permitted, based on placing seniors into "a dangerous wildfire area."
No fire station will be built near the project. The closest fire station is Los Angeles County Fire Department Station No. 124, located three miles away from the project.
"Our seniors deserve affordable housing, but it also must be safe housing. We want to know how seniors with possible mobility issues will get down from the fourth floor in a 'Power Safety Shutoff' with no lights and no elevators," said SCOPE President Lynne Plambeck. "With severely reduced senior parking to discourage cars, questions about the adequacy of the evacuation plan and how seniors would get out of the area in a rapidly moving wildfire, such as the 2016 Sage Fire, is also being questioned. In July the death toll in the horrendous Eaton and Palisades fires rose to 31. Many of these deaths were seniors that could not get out. The SCOPE Board is determined not to have a similar tragedy in the Santa Clarita Valley's future."
Plambeck said the approval of the 2012 One Valley One Vision General Plan Update came with the understanding that the city of Santa Clarita and the county of Los Angeles had promised residents of the SCV that higher density within the city would be accompanied by a reduction of construction in surrounding areas.
"It is time that the county abide by this General Plan Planning Concept and stop placing future residents in dangerous 'Very High Severity Fire
Hazard' zones in the wildland Urban Interface," she said.
The costs to Los Angeles County of the recent Eaton and Palisades fires are estimated to exceed $58.6 billion, with additional impacts to economic growth and job losses, Plambeck said.
The estimated total property and capital losses from the Eaton and Palisades wildfires in Los Angeles County range from $95 to $164 billion, with insured losses estimated at $75 billion, according to UCLA.
"It is time to take another look at the health, safety and economic costs of building in these areas. We hope this this appeal will spur a second look and re-evaluation," she said.